Protectors: Numbers
by scarlet phlame
Summary: It's been 18 years since Nikki left Bannerman Road at Christmas, and Sky Smith joined the group. One month after Sarah Jane's death, the world's population begins to decrease by one half every single day. People are being erased from time and nobody is noticing. (Dark. Torchwood-based take on SJA.) Hints of Clani, with Lukria and one-sided Sky/OC
1. Day One- Afternoon

Protectors

* * *

"Gender?"

"Male."

"Age?"

"Possibly thirty. Dunno. You'd have to call an archaeologist."

"Cause of death?"

"Pretty damn easy to see if you open your eyes and look down," Maria said, with a glare.

"Erk, sorry," Luke mumbled, brushing away a strand of flyaway hair and tucking it behind his ear. He fingered the pen he was holding carefully, running his fingers against the smooth metal surface nervously. "Sorry. Just stressed out, I suppose," he said, his voice coming out just a tad bit hoarse.

"Stressed out about what, exactly?" Maria asked, kneeling over and probing the body with a torch. "The fact that we found a dead body in your garage, or the thing you heard at the funeral?"

"Yes," Luke said, loudly, turning his attention back and forth sporadically between the body on the floor and the paper in his hand. "It seems as if the cause of death was a bullet," he grunted, doing his best to dodge the imminent subject.

"No shit, Sherlock," Maria grumbled, tossing her braided hair behind her back. "And, actually, 'f you don't mind, I was asking a question."

Luke sighed, pocketing the pen and paper and leaning against the wall. "Both."

Maria exhaled sharply. "Luke, you gotta stop worrying about that. It's been a month since the funeral, and nothing's happened yet. 'Count the numbers', they said. Well, I've been bloody counting the numbers for ages. Statistics, US population, even the damn stocks. Nothing has changed in the slightest."

"It was a warning," Luke said, sharply. "Not a promise."

"You know what I think?" Maria asked, sighing and pocketing her torch. She pushed herself off the ground with a grunt. "I think you're just stressed, with all that's been happening recently. And I don't blame you, honestly, I don't. Your mum's dead, Luke, and you're possibly just reacting in-"

"Oh, I didn't hire you to spew psychologist shit at me," Luke grunted. "If I wanted that talk, I'd 'ave called your mother."

Maria folded her arms across her chest in a matter-of-fact manner. "When did you ever become so cold, Luke Smith?"

"I was always like this," Luke mumbled, pushing his hands against the wall and straightening himself.

"No, you weren't," Maria said.

Luke ignored her, simply raising up his wrist and strapping open his comms device. "Rani, I need you and Clyde to do a run-through of the area. See if there's anybody suspicious. Report back in five minutes."

"You remember when we used to do that around the house for fun?" Maria teased.

"That was a long time ago," Luke warned, reaching down and pushing up the garage door. "A very, very long time ago," he added.

"I got it the first time you said it," Maria said nonchalantly, scratching behind her ear and glancing downwards as light cut into the room.

"Why d'ya think they'd put him in my garage, anyway?" Luke pressed, taking a step outside and breathing in the damp, water-saturated air.

"Dunno," Maria said, frowning. "Eh, wait a minute."

They both turned around slowly.

"Holy shit," Luke breathed, his breath fogging in the freezing air, staring at the back wall of the garage in horror.

Maria lifted her wrist up to her nose, speaking directly into her communicator, calm as she could, although there was an unkept urgency in her voice as she spoke. "Clyde, Rani, here, now. You'll want to see this."


	2. Day One- Evening

"What do you think it means?" Luke asked, referring to the one word painted on the furthest wall of the garage. It'd been too dark inside to recognise the faint lettering, alas, much easier to see in broad daylight.

"Exactly what it says," Clyde noted. "It says, 'numbers'."

"That's very helpful, yeah," Luke grumbled. "Why does it all have to be written out in riddles, all the time?" He frowned, brown eyebrows furrowing against his chapped skin.

"Dunno," Rani said, with a sigh. "I just wish it wasn't... well, y'know. In your garage."

"I think it's written in his blood," Sky whispered. "Oh."

Luke looked positively angered. "Now you see what I meant, Maria?" he whirled around. "We should've checked the statistics again, double checked, triple checked, I don't care. We knew it was a-"

"A warning," Maria reminded him. "It was a warning, not a promise. For God's sake, how are we supposed to count the numbers when we don't know which numbers to count?"

Luke sighed. "Yeah, yeah, sorry. I'm just stressed."

"Really?" Maria asked, cocking her head to the side. "Hadn't noticed."

"We should take a DNA print, then have Mr. Smith scan the photos of the word," Clyde advised. "There might be some sort of hidden imprint in the wall."

"Right."

* * *

"This is DNA belonging to Henry Van Statten," Rani noted, pushing her dark hair behind her ear, and squinting underneath the concentrated light. "Or, well, what _used_ to be Henry Van Statten."

"What do we know about him?" Luke questioned, leaning over Rani's work.

"Not much," Rani noted. "He apparently used to own the 'Net. And a museum with alien artefacts, he kept it underground. Oh, yeah, but look at this," she said, pulling up a file on the computer. "It looks like he lost his memory a while back."

"Nobody recognised him?" Luke asked, frowning at a picture of Van Statten on the computer.

"Apparently not," Rani told him. "Question is, how did he even get in the UK in the first place? He's American."

"You don't think," Luke started, before being interrupted by a rather loud knocking noise at the front door.

BANG BANG BANG BANG

BANG BANG BANG BANG

"Shit," Luke said, pushing himself away from the desk and yanking the attic door open, flying down the stairs. Sky tailed him, shouting behind her at the others to keep on working.

"What? What is it?" she asked, watching carefully as he unbolted the door.

"Only a few people in the world," Luke said, through gritted teeth, as he worked open one of the locks, "know how to get my attention. Guess what?"

"What?"

Luke looked her in the eyes, pausing in his work. "They've got it."

He pushed open the door.

"Hallo!" a brown-haired girl in a tattered coat greeted them. "Luke Smith, you owe me a snog," she said sharply, wagging a finger in Luke's face, then, almost as quickly as she'd barged in, she smirked, glancing over at the brunette. "Hi, Sky. Hey, that rhymed."

Then, she proceeded to fall over on the rug.

* * *

"Who is she?" Sky demanded, as Luke lay her down on his bed. "How did she know my name?"

"She's sort of an old friend," Luke explained. "Well, friend slash enemy. Or both," he said, frowning.

"Luke," Sky said, calm as she could, watching him with careful nervousness as he pulled his hands back and rested them on his hips, "I don't want to freak you out, but you've got blood on your hands."

Luke looked at his hands and cursed, fumbling around for his comms device. "Rani, can you get me the medkit? It's in the second cupboard left from the attic door. Thanks. Meet me in my room."

"She's got something in her hand," Sky noted quietly. "And she looks like she's been rolling in dirt."

"Knowing her, I wouldn't put it past her," Luke mumbled, although there was the slightest smirk playing at the corner of his lips.

"You're smiling," Sky noted.

"Am not."

"I saw it."

"You saw something you imagined."

"I saw something, all right, it was a smile, and it was on your face."

"You imagined it."

"What's so bad about smiling?"

"Nothing."

"Then why won't you?"

"There's nothing to smile about."

"I've got the medk- shit," Rani said, freezing at the entry. "Is that-"

"Yeah," Luke responded, straightening himself and picking at his top shirt button. "It's Nikki."

"What's she doing here? I thought she went to Japan, with Madeline," Rani said, frowning.

"Dunno," Luke frowned, "but, if she is here, which, she is, we know something's definitely up. It's been almost... hmm, 18 years since we last saw her?"

"I definitely know I'm missing something," Sky announced. "Who is she, then?"

"A while ago," Luke said, chuckling. "Well, a long while ago, there was this sort of... incident. It messed up her head, so she thinks she needs to end the world, but save it at the same time. She used to help us when there was alien stuff, when Mum..." his voice trailed off. "Well, yeah, you get the picture," he said, clearing his throat.

"Sorry," Sky said, wincing. "I didn't-"

"'S fine," Luke said, quickly.

"Lemme just give her some painkillers," Rani said, running over to the bedside and retrieving a very sharp looking-

"No, don't, she doesn't like-"

"AGH!"

"Needles," Luke said, wincing.

"Geezus, I'm not dead yet!" Nikki screamed. "Stop poking needles in me!" she swatted out wildly, her fist making contact with the needle in Rani's hand and sending it flying. Rani watched it sail across the room and hit the wall, stunned.

"Yep, she's fine," Luke said.

"Hallo," Nikki smirked, giving a wave. "How're you all doing?"

"Fine, fine," Luke responded simply, folding his arms across his chest. "So, what are you doing here?"

"Came to visit you," Nikki said, a bit too fast. "Just checking up, and-"

"Nikki," Luke warned.

"I got a message," Nikki sighed, hesitantly. "It said, 'count'."

Luke sucked in a breath. "Count what?"

"Count the numbers."

Luke leaned over her, and grabbed her by the coat, lifting her up slightly. "Is this you?" he demanded.

"Luke-" Sky started.

"No, shh," Luke forced. "Nikki, are you the one leaving the messages?"

"Nope," Nikki squeaked. "Not really. I'm the one _chasing_ after the messages." She fiddled with something in her hands that Sky missed from sight.

"How do you know about the numbers?"

"I went to Maths class."

"Nikki..."

"Fine, fine," Nikki coughed. "I... broke into the FBI."

Luke let go of her, backing up, his brow only furrowing further. "You what? What the heck happened to you?"

"Wee-ll, among other things," Nikki said, frowning. "Got married to my iPod, shagged Lucy, which is my headset, by the way, lovely thing, drowned a cat in ketchup- sorry, blood, blew up a coop of chickens, broke into the FBI, and stole this," she said, holding up her fist. Sky spotted the item in her hand she'd failed to see earlier. "It's one of those new things they use to detect humans. See-"

"Yeah, yeah, I got that bit," Luke said sharply. "I meant, where did you get the message?"

"You mean about the numbers?" Nikki asked.

"Yes," Luke said. "Nikki, tell me about the numbers."

"Well, two times two is-"

"You do realise if you keep rattling on like this, it's just gonna make him more suspicious?" Rani challenged.

"Fine, fine," Nikki grumbled. "Well, I was in Cardiff, London, a while back. I'd been chasing this one alien... nice bloke, really. Sort of a big nose. Well, big everything. Anyway, I turned this alley, and ran into this-"

"Dark haired woman," Luke finished.

"Who-"

"Told you to count the numbers," Luke finished, again.

"Geezus," Nikki said, frowning. "You gonna finish ALL my sentences, tonight?"

Luke ran his fingers through his hair. "But that isn't possible. None of it's possible."

"You say that all the time," Nikki told him with a smirk. "Luke Smith, if there's anything you've learned after all these years, it should be that anything's possible. Why, even the word 'impossible' screams 'I'm-possible'."

"Oh, but, it doesn't make sense," Luke groaned. "Come on."

"What about that alien artefact you said you had?" Rani questioned.

"You mean this?" Nikki asked, holding up a smallish blue and silver object. It was about the size of their old Apple TV remote, square and chunky with bits of wires spewing out from the inside.

"Looks like something outta Star Wars," Luke noted wryly.

"Look who's talking!" Nikki said, shooting him a smirk. "Now, then, this? This is the reason I broke into the FBI. See, it's sort of like... well, this energy measurement device. All humans in the world give off a certain amount of energy. And so do aliens. Aliens give off a different kind, though. It's used to measure and check how many aliens are on Earth. Or under it." she frowned. "Don't even get me started on the-"

"Yeah, Nikki, what I want to know is why you'd want this," Rani said, sitting down next to her. "Come on."

Nikki bit her lip, pausing to think. "It's... well, think about me. I'm alien, but I look human. All these people on the streets who look human could actually be aliens in disguise. You see, aliens have been on Earth for ages, living and pretending to be like you."

"Stop dodging the question," Rani demanded, "and tell us what's going on here."

"I'm trying to tell you, you just won't shut up a minute to let me speak," Nikki hissed. "Anyway, this thing can measure aliens and humans alike, but it can't locate them exactly. I was told to 'count the numbers'. I can use this to count the numbers of aliens and humans and see the changes."

"So why would you count the population?" Luke inquired. "All the prophet said was 'count the numbers'. Why would you count the population?"

Nikki blinked. "God, are you stupid. 'Count the numbers' is CTN, otherwise known as the entire amount of people in battle. Did you know, OK originally meant 'Zero Killed' in wars?"

"O, kool," Rani said.

"Whoever sent you and I that message, they want us to, for whatever reason, keep an eye on the population changes," Nikki explained.

"Couldn't they have just said, 'count the population'?" Luke asked, with a sigh, hand on his forehead.

"Maybe they thought you would, ya know, use your brain," Nikki said, leaning over and ruffling his hair.

"Look who's talking," Luke said, raising an eyebrow. "You broke into the FBI."

"I'm fine!"

"You look like you've been rolling around in dirt," Sky pointed out.

"I came out unscathed," Nikki protested. "I just got hit by a couple of cars. And then got shot. Twice. In the arm."

Rani gaped. "But, you can't 've, I mean, there's no bullet wounds or anything!"

Nikki shrugged. "I heal fast. By the way, 8,995,923,884."

"What's that?" Sky asked, surprised at Nikki's sudden comment.

"That's the population count," Nikki said, confused.

Luke froze. "What?"

"I said, that's the population count for-"

"I counted 4,995,925,784," Luke said, seriously. "That's what Sky's technology says the population is."

"Then it's wrong, because that's what the energy readings are," Nikki told him. "8,995,923,884 is the global energy readings. No, wait, hang on." she reached over to the device and pressed a few buttons. Then stared at the screen, for a long, long time. "No," she whispered. "No. That's... but..."

"That's what?" Luke asked. Nikki waved a hand to shush him, although it did little good. She reached into her coat pocket, dragging out a board that resembled an iPad and switching it on.

"Oh, god," she whispered. "Oh, my god."

"What is it?" Luke asked.

"The population was 8,995,923,884 yesterday," Nikki whispered. "And now, the population count is 4,995,925,790."


	3. Day One- Midnight

_I know, I know, Nikki's an OC, but just give her one teensy, weensy chance (just this chapter) and I promise you'll warm up to her. I hope..._

* * *

"But it was always like that!" Luke insisted, as Nikki stared ahead at the device in her hands, in horror, knuckles turning white from her tough grip on the metal surface, hands shaking wildly. "It was like that week-"

"Shut up," Nikki snarled, savagely. "Just shut the hell up, will you?"

"What's gotten into you?" Rani pressed, with a frown. She approached the bedside, folding her arms across her chest, as if to say 'you'd better tell us what's going on, and I mean now'.

"Gimme a second," Nikki grumbled, pushing out of bed and standing, approaching Luke and pressing her hands against his face.

"What are you-"

And just like that, Nikki walked right into Luke's mind.

_Ow! Don't step there!_ Luke scowled.

_It's got to be here somewhere!_ Nikki thought back to him, rummaging around inside an imaginary cabinet, throwing files all over the floor. Luke watched each paper float to the ground, before running in what felt like slow motion towards each paper. He'd forgotten what it was like being in his head, slow, hard to move, sort of like molasses.

_Those are my memories! Stop that!_ Luke snapped back, grabbing up all of the papers and freezing at the sight of a file titled 'Mum'. Hastily, he stashed it at the very bottom of the pile, then thought otherwise and shuffled it all back up, slipping it under the file labelled '456' and 'Captain Jack Harkness'.

_Eww, gross, you've met the Doctor?_ Came Nikki's direct thought. Her tone was brutal, and Luke had to admit, he was slightly surprised she could even manage emotion. It was hard enough to telepathically think to her.

_Stop rummaging around in my mind_, Luke demanded.

_No_, Nikki thought to him, dashing over to another cabinet. _Hey, you've locked it! _She thought to him, in dismay.

_Yeah, that's the only cabinet you're not getting into_, Luke said, trying to sound as angry as he could, but failing, succeeding in nothing more than a monotone rasp.

_Something's made you forget that the population was at 8, and you're thinking it's 4_, Nikki told him. _Something, or someone_. Luke couldn't help but shudder (oh, if only he COULD shudder) at that thought. No, literally. It was a thought.

_So_, Nikki continued, _we need to figure out if there's been any security breaches. You know your mind better than I do, so what's your ideal of the perfect place to hide something?_

_Under the bed? _Luke suggested.

_Seriously?_

_Yes._

_All right, then. Which one of these doors is it?_ Nikki asked, tugging at one of the handles.

_Dunno._

_How can you not know_? Nikki asked, incredulously. _It's your head, for God's sake!_

_I don't know, I don't come up here often!_

_Well, you should. And maybe redecorate it, a bit. The office theme is giving me a headache. Or a mindache. Whatever you call it. _Nikki pushed the door open. _Here we are_. She glanced around the room, before sauntering over to the bed and pulling out a box from underneath. _Righto, so you weren't joking about the bed. Was hoping you were. Now, let's see._

_What are we looking for?_ Luke asked, intrigued, watching as she turned the box over and over again, scanning every spot of it with her eyes.

_Anything that suggests some sort of mind-breach, _Nikki explained. _Your memories work like that; they're locked up, most of the time, and so you put the facts that I, the intruder, are looking for, and you hide it in the place your subconscious deems best. Then I go and find them. So, whoever made you forget this memory had to have broken in first to delete it._

_Like Inception?_

_Kind of like Inception. Maybe Mindception. Dunno. Or, Lukeception._

_I like the second one better_, Luke responded.

_There's no sign of a breach!_ Nikki exclaimed, running a hand through her hair. _Oh, God, that is terrifyingly good._

A pause.

_I wonder if they live somewhere nearby, maybe-_

_No, Nikki, no, focus_, Luke reminded her.

_There's nothing to- AGH!_

Luke gasped as Nikki stumbled back to the other corner of the room, panting, their psychic connection cut off.

"They cut off my connection, whoever they are, they're still in your head," Nikki realised. "Oh, god, that's not good."

"What just happened?" Rani asked.

"She went into my head," Luke said casually, motioning helplessly towards Nikki, all the while out of breath.

"There's something in his head, something in all of your heads, making you forget the population every single day," Nikki explained. "You forgot that over 4 billion people went missing. They've been erased, probably from time, and the only thing keeping you from forgetting them is probably because you've been hanging around me for a while."

"What is she on about?" Sky asked, exasperated, and looking a bit exhausted, at it, too.

"I'm..." Nikki fidgeted. "Sort of like the Time Vortex. Think of it this way, when you travel in space and time, you sort of get this radiation stuck to you. Like makeup, and you can only remove it with makeup remover. No, sorry, you can't remove the radiation with makeup remover. I don't think you can even remove it, actually, though that's not the point."

"Then what is the point?" Luke asked, as Nikki began to pace back and forth.

"When you get this backup radiation, it sort of makes you time-aware," Nikki explained. "Since I hung 'round you lot for so long, you soaked up that radiation from me, too. Like passing on lice, except it's all dead and totally harmless. Well, harmless as long as you stay away from toaster ovens and goldfish, you might experience some static... er... electricity, issues. But that's not the point, either."

"You lot got this time-aware radiation," Nikki explained. "It makes you sort of immune to forgetting things that happen in timelines. So, when these 4 billion people were erased from time..."

"We should have remembered because we're time-aware," Luke realised.

Nikki nodded. "Right, but you forgot. The whole reason I came here was 'cos I needed help remembering. Hard to remember something that never existed."

"Well, how would you even know to come to us in the first place?" Rani asked. "I mean, about the population, how would you know people are getting erased from time?"

Nikki swallowed. "It was previously nine billion, and it's gone down to four in three days."

"Shit."

"I know," Nikki admitted.

"How old are you, really?" Sky asked quietly.

Nikki spun around. "What do you mean?"

"How old are you?" Sky reiterated.

Nikki chuckled. "Bundle of laughs, this one is," she told Luke, gesturing towards Sky.

"Answer my question," Sky said softly.

"Thirty-two," Nikki responded cheerfully. "Looking pretty good, huh?"

"You know too much," Sky mumbled. "I mean, you know way, way, way too much for a 32-year old."

Nikki froze. "Heh? I'm just really smart, 's all."

"Actually," Rani admitted. "She's kinda right."

"Nope!" Nikki shouted. "Not the point! Now, then, we've got some work to do! We need to put post-it's around the base, so we remember."

"Base?" Luke inquired.

"Yeah, this is the base. Or the Batcave. Whichever you prefer," Nikki said, with a smirk.

"It's our old house, and there's a computer and alien stuff in the attic," Luke deadpanned.

"I know, and I'm calling it the Batcave," Nikki replied. "Now, then, after we get the sticky notes up, Protectors will get to work!"

"What'll get to who?" Rani asked, blinking in surprise.

"That's the name of our group," Nikki explained. "Protectors. Sounds cool, dunnit?"

"Not really," Sky said, with a smirk. Nikki pouted.

"Well, I like it. So! We'll get this base started up, then we'll count the numbers every day, measuring the differences in population. Then, the Protectors of Bannerman Road start tracking down whoever's doing this, and we. Will. Save. The. World. This, I promise you. Now, get to it!" Nikki clapped her hands together, and ran left.

"That's the closet," Luke called.

"I knew that, I was just testing you!" Nikki shouted back.


	4. Day Two- Morning

"Get him!"

"I'm trying!"

"You need to run faster!"

"I'm running as fast as I can!"

"Then lose some weight!"

"Are you calling me fat?!" Sky asked, not sure whether to roll her eyes or feel genuinely offended.

"No, I'm calling you slow!" Nikki bellowed.

"Shut it, both of you!" Luke growled, charging ahead at the offending person at full speed, kicking up wet blades of cut grass as he ran. "We need to catch this guy, he's the first lead we've had in ages!"

"Actually, he's the only lead we've had, EVER," Nikki finished, with a scowl, in between breaths, as she continued to sprint after the suspect. "And stop kicking up grass, I feel like you're gonna get it in my hair," she scolded.

"You don't have any hair to get it into," Luke scoffed.

"I cut it short because I got tired with it flapping around in my face," Nikki admitted. "Though that's not the point."

The trio stopped running, staring ahead blankly. They'd just reached the outskirts of a town, and the suspect was nowhere to be seen.

"Where'd he go?" Sky cried, turning around in circles, hoping to maybe see something. Luke dipped a hand into his pocket, retrieving a tracking device. He hit the sides, and let out a little moan.

"Dead," he groaned. "Completely dead."

"I thought you put the batteries in BEFORE!" Sky shouted.

"I did!" Luke protested. "But they... died."

"You lot are so irresponsible, not to mention thick," Nikki groaned, reaching into one of her tattered pockets from her coat, and retrieving a second tracking device. "He's in the area, still. Behind that old building over there," she paused, to point, "and then a bit to the left."

"How'd you do that?" Luke asked, furrowing his brow.

"You put a tracker on him, and this detects all trackers in the area," Nikki explained. "So, we gonna find him?"

"Let's go, then," Luke said, making to walk off.

"Hang on," Nikki said, grabbing his arm and freezing. "You've got... a gun."

"Yeah, what of it?" Luke asked, slightly annoyed.

"Give that to me," Nikki demanded, making to snatch it out of Luke's satchel, but he kept it away from her.

"No way," Luke said. "I might need it, besides, I don't trust you with a gun."

Nikki snorted. "I won't let you use a gun. I hate guns."

"You try to end the world all the time!" Luke exclaimed, exasperated.

"That was a long, long time ago," Nikki warned him. "The past is an entirely different world for me, Luke Smith, and I suggest you forget about that and drop. The. Freaking. Gun."

"No," Luke said, chin up, staring at her defiantly. "I won't."

Nikki stared at him, fiercely, for a long while. "Don't shoot anybody," she demanded, before stalking off in the other direction. "Hurry, or we'll lose him," she added, tossing the words over her shoulder with a turn of her head, not bothering to pause in her run.

"I don't get it," Sky told Luke, as they trailed after her. "I mean, what's she got against guns?"

Luke sighed. "She thinks if you kill somebody, it leaves a scar that you have to live with the rest of your life."

"And she should know, then?"

"Yes, she does, actually. But she doesn't get that not everybody can make by without a gun. That was how Mum... though, that's not the point," Luke said, brushing off the point best he could.

Sky looked at her gun, for a while. "I think you're just trying to justify the means of killing. It's like in video games, where people say they aren't killing real people."

"Please stop with your dramatics," Luke grumbled. "Unless you wanna make everyone in the area deaf."

"Oh, shut up," Sky mumbled, whacking him in the arm gently as they approached a very old, very tattered-down building.

Nikki eyed the building, nervously. There were chunks of concrete missing from the structure, and the entire thing was as battered as a toddler's blanket. There were giant rips and tears in the fabric of the stone, and pieces of paper and debris flew freely in the air, flitting about in the breeze.

"Why does it always have to be the depressing, ominous buildings, every time?" Nikki mumbled. "Do they just have a thing for cliches?"

She turned to Luke and Sky. "All right. Sky? Secure the perimeter. Tell Rani and Clyde to keep an eye on the CCTV in the area and monitor and track them if they get away. Luke, you come in with me. No shooting," she said the last part fiercely.

"All right, all right," Luke said, throwing his arms up in defeat, as if throwing a miniature tantrum. "What does it matter?" he plowed on, oblivious to Sky's inner turmoil.

"Okay, here we go," Nikki said, sucking in a deep breath. "After you, then, Luke, ladies first," she said with a smirk, pushing open the doors with a loud creak.

"So hate you," Luke grunted as he stepped into the plummeting darkness of the building, Nikki following behind him with a torch in her hand.

"Something's dripping," Nikki noted, making a face. "God, I hate leaky faucets. Eew, it's on my cheek. Gross, muddy water. Yuck."

"Yeah, can we focus, please?" Luke moaned, doing his best to stumble through the debris.

"Ow!" there was a loud clang, as the torchlight scattered and shook as it apparently hit the ground. "I tripped!"

"I heard," Luke said. "Where are you? I can't see a thing."

"Hold on, let me- AGH!"

Nikki froze, in horror, staring at the bloodied, mangled corpse of a man, that she'd tripped on, flashlight gripped tightly in her hand.

"Well, that's not something you see every morning," Nikki said, doing he rbest to sound brave, though her shoulders were shaking.

"What the hell?" Luke asked, stumbling over to the corpse, as drips of water plopped onto his back. "But how-"

Drip

Drip

Drip

"Nikki," Luke said, slowly extending a hand to cover hers, wrapping his fingers around the torch. "I'm gonna take the torch. Don't look up."

Nikki nodded, loosening her grip. Luke slipped it out of her hand, then, swallowing, pointed the torch up at the ceiling, grimacing.

COUNT

There it was, the formidable lettering scrawled across the ceiling in what could only be human blood.

Luke jumped, shining the torch away from the ceiling as there was a loud clatter from the other side of the room. "Nikki?"

"It's only me," she sounded very tired. "I found the tracker. I guess someone else found him first, though, because the tracker wasn't far from the... y'know."

Luke nodded, slowly. "Figured that much." Racking his mind, trying to figure out how they would manage writing on the ceiling, of all places – all the while, trying to pick his way out of the wreckage. "Let's just get back to the Batcave, okay?"

Laughter followed his statement, and he scowled. "What?"

"Nothing," Nikki said, giggling. "You just said... Batcave."

* * *

"It's his DNA, definitely," Sky concluded, back in the attic. "But how would anything get him that fast? It looks like there's been dependent scarring along the corpse that's been going on for months."

"Plucked out of his timestream?" Rani suggested. "Maybe they yanked him out of time, then... murdered him. And stuff."

"Could be," Nikki said. "Dunno."

"But look at the CCTV," Sky said, jabbing at the monitor with a finger. "Mr. Smith, rewind by thirty rells." she paused, motioning towards an image. "Right, there. No, back about by .45 seconds."

The group was greeted by a black screen.

"But it's just a black screen," Clyde protested.

"That's the point," Sky concluded. "It cut out, just for a second, but a second is so, so important. You can hide anything in a second."

Nikki smirked. "You are good. You wanna go get a drink sometime?"

"Nikki, stop flirting," Rani said, exasperated. "We're trying to work this out. It's very serious."

"I'm not flirting!" Nikki protested. "Besides, I'm straight! Straight as a ruler!"

There was a long, uncomfortable pause after this.

"Okay, straight as a bendy ruler," Nikki admitted, "though that's not the point!"

"When we got there, though, he was already dead," Luke explained. "So how would they even manage to get him?"

"Next time, you do not let him out of your sight," Rani demanded. "Got it? He was the first lead we've had in months, months, okay? And now? Now, he's dead. So, you? Watch it. Or else I'll go out myself, and you know how that ended last time."

"Yes, ma'm," Luke said, sarcastically.

"There is... something we could use," Nikki said, finally. "But... I really, really don't want to use it."

"What?" Sky demanded. "What can we use?"

"I don't want to use it!" Nikki shouted. "But if we have to, we have to!"

"What does it do?" Sky demanded. "You need to tell us!"

Nikki fidgeted. "It's this thing called the Resurrection Gauntlet, and it can bring people back from the dead. Thing is, I'm not that good with it, so I only used it twice, one minute the first time, two minutes the second time. And it means I'll have to break into my old house to steal it."

"So steal it!" Luke said, exhausted by this point. "We need evidence, and there's no leads so far, it's killing us!"

"But I don't want to use it," Nikki blurted. "'Cos it's not fair. I said I wasn't gonna use it again, but-"

"If it saves the whole world? We need to use it!" Luke shouted.

Nikki flinched. "All right. I'll have it back by tonight, then." she sighed, looking at the body on the makeshift autopsy table, and cringing, wondering just what they were getting themselves into.

"Use. It. That's an order," Luke shouted.


	5. Day Two- Evening

_**I do not own Mark and Emily, they are the property of Mystic Lover of the fairytale, who has kindly granted me permission to use them.**_

_**Also, I did do a character study on Sky; it's a bit difficult to write for her since she had so few episodes, but the way I see her is a bit stubborn (she didn't listen to Sarah Jane and the others, after all), brave (was willing to give her life for the war's cause), and very happy and cheerful most of the time, which are traits I am trying to play on.**_

_**Also, fair warning: Luke says the F word in this chapter, although I did try to cut down on the swearing.**_

* * *

Protectors Chapter 5

It was the end of the next day when Nikki slipped back into the attic quietly, holding a large, chunky looking metal glove and a knife of some sort.

"Why've you got a knife?" Maria asked, nervously watching Nikki gloomily drag herself into the room, knife swinging at her sides, gripped in her hand. She backed away slowly, putting her hands in front of her a bit.

"Just in case the glove doesn't work," Nikki responded, though she sounded positively grumpy.

"Looks like a fish," Rani said, scowling at the weapon.

"So we can't use guns, but you can use a knife? Brilliant," Luke grumbled.

"Look, I don't have time for this," Nikki snapped, leaning over and putting the giant, bulky knife a careful distance from the autopsy table, moving the tools to the far right of the room. She placed the glove on an empty spot next to the body, and sighed.

"So how does the glove work, anyway?" Luke asked, staring at the chunky piece of metal that was just a bit too big to fit in Nikki's hands. So much for the saying, 'fits like a glove'.

"It brings people back from the dead," Nikki said, her voice sounding hoarse. "And if you stab people with the knife, it sort of helps them come back for longer."

"Seriously?" Maria asked, scowling. "Who'd even invent that?"

Nikki kicked at the ground. "A while ago, there was this war called the 'Dark Wars'. And it was between my home planet and this other planet called Merinamea. That was actually how my family started; the Slitheen, running away from the war. I know that doesn't justify all the crap stuff we did..." Nikki paused. "But I'd rather do what I did and deal with those scars, then remember what happened when I was actually in the war."

"You were in a war?" Luke asked, sounding vaguely surprised.

"Not really," Nikki said, frowning. "I was just a victim of it. That's all I am, though, a victim. Funny how one word can really summarize me well, huh? Well, the Dark Wars rendered a lot of people victims... but, Merinamea is a planet heralding these creatures called the 'Dark Knights'."

"Sounds like Batman," Sky concluded.

Nikki ignored her. "Basically, the Dark Knights were... sort of warriors. They'd go around on the battlefield, kill people, stuff like that." she hesitated. "And they had this suit of armour;" she held up the glove, "which they... well, used to interrogate people after bringing them back from the dead. The knife enhanced the glove's power, and they eventually got so good at bringing people back they were able to bring them back for, well, as many times as they liked. They gave their victims no peace," she said, scowling.

"But isn't it good, coming back from the dead?" Sky suggested. "I mean, but, couldn't you reason with them? The glove, what if it could bring people back for good?"

"It's capable of bringing them back," Nikki admitted, "but it's designed to bring them back for only a short period of time. That's the most awful bit."

"How do you mean?" Sky asked.

"Think of it this way," Nikki said. "You're dead, and at peace. You're in heaven, and you've never, ever been happier. And then, you're dragged away from peace, to find out there's a knife in your chest and you've been killed on a battlefield, and these horrifying creatures that are experts at torture and interrogation want to bring you back from that peace and force you to tell them what you know, and they will never, ever stop bringing you back until you break and tell them everything."

Sky frowned. "Okay, you've got a point, there. But how would you know all this so well?"

"I've died before, once," Nikki muttered, "but that's not the point. The point is, are we really willing to do this, now that we know what they've been used for?"

"We need to know what they know," Luke insisted.

"I don't know how long I'll be able to do it for, and I can only use it once," Nikki said. "It's specifically designed for only Dark Knights to use, so incase someone tries to bring anybody back for too long, there are consequences. This thing is alive, and you'll suffer consequences if you're too insistent with it. I vowed not to use it again, ever."

"We need to find out what's happening," Luke said. "Everything's fucking out of balance out there. There are too many animals and threats and not enough people to take care of it. We are facing extinction right now, and we need. To. Use. The. Glove," he said, sharply.

"I know," Nikki sighed. "Okay. Here we go, then. Luke, I need you with a timer, telling me key points, every ten seconds. Sky, can you keep ahold of his brain activity from the monitor? Emily, you go and get me an aspirin for later. No, don't argue, go and do it. Why is everyone giving me weird looks?"

Luke kicked at the ground. "Emily and Mark left."

"How do you mean?" Nikki asked, frowning. "They were there, the last time I saw you, at Christmas."

"They went to work for a newspaper in LA," Luke said.

"That doesn't sound like them at all!" Nikki said, incredulously. "If anything, I'd 've expected them to go and work for UNIT, or Torchwood, or stay here."

Luke sighed. "They left, not long after you did."

"Oh."

There was a silent pause.

"Well, somebody go get me an aspirin," Nikki mumbled. "Okay, here we go, then." she sucked in a breath, reached out with her hand, nervously, and pressed it to the corpse's head.

The man on the autopsy table leered forward, gasping in a breath. "I was, I was-" he just kept talking, repeating his panicked mantra over and over.

"Calm down," Nikki said, doing her best to stay calm, although she looked nearly as nervous as the man on the table. "I'm Ashley McGann, and you're dead. I'm sorry."

"Ten seconds," Luke called.

"What? But I'm alive, I'm alive!" the man screamed.

"We need to know what you had to do with the numbers!" Nikki shouted. "What were you doing in the warehouse? How did-" she paused, wincing, and bracing herself. "Listen, we need to know what you were doing with that piece of alien technology. You had a Vortex Manipulator. Are you behind the people being erased from time?"

The man shuddered. "There was... there was..."

"Twenty seconds," Luke shouted.

"Tell me what you were doing!" Nikki screamed.

"I'm not dead, I'm not dead, I can't be dead! Don't tell me I'm dead, I'm not dead!"

"Shut up, you're dead, and tell me what you were doing in the warehouse!"

"I can't!"

"If you tell me, then we can bring you back for good," Nikki fibbed, biting her lip. "But you need to tell me, okay? Can you do that for me?"

"Thirty seconds!"

"But, I-"

"Have you got family?" Nikki asked quietly. "A mum, a dad? Someone you fancy?"

The guy looked panicked. "There's... Angela?"

"Angela, okay, Angela," Nikki said. "Think about her. Wouldn't you like to see her again? Just think about Emily for me, okay? You can see her again, if you like. But you need to tell me what you were doing in the warehouse."

The guy bit his lip. "There's... I was running. I was... I was, I was, I was trying t- to, find, find... find an explanation for the population g-going down."

"How d'you know about the population?" Nikki coaxed.

"Th- Angela-"

"Yes, I know, Emily," Nikki said. "You like her. Tell me what you were looking for! Did you have a lead?"

"Forty seconds!"

"I was running-"

"Yes, away from us, you were running away from us," Nikki said, annoyed.

"Not away from you," the man said, shaking. "I was running towards someone."

"Fifty seconds!"

"We're losing him!" Sky added.

"Who were you running towards?" Nikki demanded. "Who? Who did you see?"

"Death," the man said. "I saw, I saw... death."

There was a loud, screeching BLEEP from the monitor as the connection cut off and the man stopped his thrashing, falling against the table. Nikki leapt away, hurling the glove off her hand with such force it went flying across the room and hit the tool table for the autopsies, sending its contents onto the floor.

"You said two minutes!" Luke shouted. "We didn't get anything!"

Nikki shuddered. "That was a long, long time ago. Things have changed, since then. You have to really, really want them back, and him? He had a family. He wanted peace. He didn't need to be reminded of their pain at his death."

"We needed that evidence!" Luke hissed. "We are so lucky the population has only gone up since then! But it could drop any day now!"

"Exactly, it was going down much faster earlier, that means something is stunting the decrease!" Nikki shouted.

"Oh," Luke exclaimed, tearing at his hair. "What are we gonna do now?" he slumped down at the steps by the wall.

Nikki winced. "Listen, maste- Luke, we can't tear ourselves apart over something that just happened. We need to move on. We can find out whoever this Angela he talked about is; we could've gained something."

"Or hit another dead end," Luke hissed through his teeth, little bits of his hair fraying and feathering in his tight grasp.

Nobody really noticed when Nikki left the room.


	6. Day Two- Midnight

"Shit!"

Nikki winced as the hot blast of hair hit her well in the face, sending little tendrils of her hair drifting freely in the air. She did her best to smooth down the uneven ends, biting her lip as she tenderly closed the oven door, exhaling very sharply and leaning against the cabinet, closing her eyes, in relief.

For a second there, she'd been reminded of The Flamethrower (which she really, really didn't want to think about right now). But it wasn't something she was gonna forget recently, and her memories of the Year were beginning to surface, now more than ever before. She supposed it had something to do with the fact she was nearly driving herself mad in her efforts to remember the population, remember that it was ever-changing.

She recalled her old house, and the Wall of Names. The Wall of Names was, well, a Wall of Names. Names that might've been something before, but, now, were just names. Everytime someone she cared about died, or she lost them, she'd write their name on that wall, and then Retcon herself because it was much easier than living with it. She wondered how much longer it'd be until Luke's name was on that wall, or when Rani's or Maria's would join it, even Clyde's. They were just people, drifting away from her on the distance, and she was doing her best to cling onto them for dear life, 'though she knew they would eventually fade, become something little more than background noise.

"You okay?"

Nikki nearly jumped at the sudden touch on her shoulder, wincing when she realized it was only Sky. Letting out a few jumbled curses, she turned down the oven and wiped her hands on her jeans, forgetting about the stains it would leave in the dark blue fabric.

"Fine," she said, forcing on a bright smile. "Hey, d'you normally sneak up on people like that? That should be a profession. You could be... a sneaker! Sorry, that's a shoe, nevermind."

She turned around, trying to busy herself at the oven, look occupied so maybe she could run away from the questions she knew were sure to come. She braced herself.

"You need help with that?" Sky asked.

Nikki blinked. It wasn't nearly the question she'd been expecting (maybe something along the lines of the glove, or why she'd messed up earlier with it, or who the hell she really was, but the question was so innocent she was startled).

"Uh, sure, I guess," Nikki said, fighting to maintain a plastic smile. "You making a reference to my cooking?" she accused.

Sky shrugged. "Luke doesn't talk about you that often. Actually, he doesn't talk about... well, him that often."

Nikki grimaced. "Figures. You think he's still mad at me?"

Nikki did her best to force casual cheer into her tone, but she was failing miserably, instead sounding gloomy and a bit depressed.

"I think..." Sky said, folding up a towel. "I think, he's just stressed with all that's going on. And I don't blame him, really. It's been a lot on us, this whole week, lately."

Nikki nodded. "I don't blame him either. But you know what I do blame? This stove. It keeps on burning all my food! I think it's broken. I told it to cook it until it was at a nice, golden crisp, except it cooked it until it turned into Zygon snot."

"Zygon snot?" Sky asked, a smirk playing at the edges of her lips. "Care to explain what that is?"

Nikki made a face. "Trust me, you don't want to know."

Sky watched her for a moment. "Why do you hide behind humor?"

Nikki blinked. The question was put so painfully casual, and, yet, it showed insight on levels Nikki almost couldn't comprehend. "How did you know?" she asked, hiding her expression underneath a thin layer of brown bangs as she continued to wipe at one of the dishes halfheartedly.

Sky took the dish from her, wiping the water off it as Nikki set off to clean another dirtied dish, and shrugging. "If there's anything Sarah Jane taught me, there's always a reason for everything."

"She's dead, isn't she?" Nikki asked. Sky paused, and she winced. "Sorry. I was there, you know. At the funeral. You probably didn't see me."

"You didn't want to come out, because then it'd be real," Sky whispered.

Nikki paused. "You could be a psychiatrist, you know, because you're certainly starting to sound like one."

Sky chuckled, and put down the pan. "Can I tell you a secret?"

"What?"

"I'm slightly psychic," Sky said. "It... happened a while ago. I mean, a long while ago. I noticed, everyone started turning on one of my friends, and I could see and feel their anger, but there was no explanation for it. Actually, it's thanks to that that I can say 'hi' to him every day, and work with him. Dunno where he'd be, if not for that."

"Trust me, I know psychic's not all it's cracked up to be," Nikki admitted. "I had a friend who could read people's mind. Well, not from birth, anyway. Long incident with aliens, and a toaster, but long story short, she ended up with the ability to read people's minds. She killed herself a week afterwards. Funny how things can get you, like that."

"Sorry."

"No, don't be, it doesn't bother me. Especially since I can't remember who she is," Nikki admitted. "I can't place a name on it. That's Retcon, for ya."

She chuckled, but Sky looked uncomfortable.

"I forgot somebody, once," Sky admitted. "His name was James. That's all I know. He was really sweet. Sometimes I remember his eyes. Funny how that's the most memorable thing about him," she said, fake-chuckling, no humor or happiness evident in her deadpan. "And sometimes I cry about him, and I don't know why I'm sad, or why I wanted to forget him."

"Ow," Nikki said, wincing. "Sorry. Tell me 'bout it, story of my life." she tried to crack a smile. "Sorry."

"It's okay," Sky said, 'though it wasn't.

There was a long, awkward silence as the two of them continued to wash dishes.

"Did Luke consider getting a dishwasher?" Nikki teased, after the fourteenth dish or so.

"Sarah Jane used to burn all the food, so, no," Sky said. "Anything that wasn't takeout or store-bought was illegal in the house."

Nikki chuckled, wringing out the towel in her hands and draping it over her arm as she turned the faucet back on, to clean a pot. "Oh, that sounds so like him!"

Sky nodded. "Mm-hm. We used to have to ban Clani around the house, and the only place they were allowed was the kitchen, so nobody even came in here anyway."

"Clani?" Nikki asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, you know Clyde and Rani, right?" Sky asked. "They got together, I think, although it might've been after you left."

"Aw!" Nikki teased. "I was trying to get him interested in me that entire time!"

They both burst into bouts of laughter, Nikki nearly dropping the pot in her hand on the floor as she leaned against the counter for support.

* * *

_**Sorry for the short chapter, I was working on Travels Again.**_


	7. Day Three- Dawn

Luke Smith was furious.

For years now, he hadn't seen Nikki.

She wasn't the same anymore. Not a surprise, since he wasn't the same anymore. You live around aliens, and that's the consequence. You start to lose yourself.

Well, shit.

He did a double take when the laptop switched itself off. With hands shaking in anger, he turned to Mr. Smith.

"Mr. Smith?"

The computer did not reply.

"Mr. Smith, I need you."

There was still no reply.

"Mister, Smith," Luke punctuated each word.

That was when the alarm went off.

Luke stood, shock still, watching in horror as the computer slowly slid out of the wall.

"Luke. I have been infected with a virus that will cause me to self-detonate in five minutes. It appears as if someone is trying to target you," the computer said simply.

"Shit!" Luke said, grabbing at his hair. "Can you fix it?"

"No," the computer said, monotone.

"Th-there's got to be something we can do!" Luke exclaimed. "I don't know, uh... have you tried the-"

"I will self-detonate in five minutes," the computer repeated. Luke's hair was bunched up in his fists, as he frantically stumbled about the room.

"What is your purpose?" Luke screamed.

"To self-detonate in four minutes," Mr. Smith chirped.

Shit. Shit!

"What about saving the world, huh?!" Luke screamed.

"Killing the Key will save the world," Mr. Smith said.

"Shut up! Just shut up! Stop this! You're sentient, bugs can't get you, now stop it! Stop it now!" Luke screamed, face red and tears streaming down his face. "Just stop it!"

"I will self-detonate in three minutes," the computer repeated.

Luke stumbled backwards, face paling as he stared in horror at the computer. "Oh, God. Oh, my God."

No Mr. Smith. No K9, he'd been with Sarah Jane when she'd gone to die.

Double shit.

"No," he cried. "Not this. Please, not this. Not you, not you too!"

"I will self-detonate in two minutes," the computer said.

"Blast radius, what is the blast radius?" Luke screamed.

"Two mile," the computer replied.

Two miles. That covered Bannerman Road.

All of Bannerman Road.

"SKY! NIKKI! CLYDE, RANI! THERE'S A BOMB, GET OUT NOW!" Luke screamed, dashing out of the attic and not bothering to close the door as he flew down the stairs and into the hall. Desperate, he swung open the door to his room where Rani and Clyde were sleeping and shouted.

"THERE IS A BOMB, GET OUT!" he screamed, flicking on the light, his body still hanging out halfway in the hall.

Rani and Clyde rocketed out of bed.

"What?" Rani asked.

"GET OUT!" he screamed. "GET OUT AND DON'T STOP RUNNING!"

They looked at him.

Then ran.

"NIKKI! SKY!" he screamed, running downstairs to see Nikki at the stove, wiping dishes. Sky appeared to be carrying a heavy pot in her hands. Flabbergasted, he stared at them. "What are you doing?"

"Cooking," Nikki said, shocked.

"Well, there's a bomb!" Luke shrieked. "Get out!"

"Seriously?" Sky groaned. "For the love of-"

"GET. OUT!" he screamed at them. "Go outside, and keep running, and do. Not. Look. Back. I'll go get Maria."

"Maria lives 'cross the road!" Sky exclaimed.

He grabbed his sister's shoulders. "The blast radius is two miles."

Sky stumbled. "Oh, my God."

"Run!" he bellowed, and they took off down the hall. Luke followed, dashing out into the dark veil of the night. He ran directly up to Maria's house, rapping on the door. "Maria! Maria! There's a bomb, you've got to-"

And with that, 13 Bannerman Road exploded.

* * *

Luke was in the dark.

Quite literally. Choking on dust, he roughly coughed and found that he had no voice. He subconsciously pushed at the rubble on top of him, and heard a loud clack.

He froze. He didn't want to bury himself any further than he was buried now.

He leaned backwards, head lolling against a rock.

Maria.

Where was she? Was she all right? Had she survived the expl-

The explosion.

The one that had destroyed Bannerman Road.

Thirteen Bannerman Road, gone.

Mr. Smith, gone.

The garden and the house he'd grown up in with Sarah Jane, all the framed pictures and the laptops.

Gone.

Just gone.

All gone.

Oh, god.

Coughing, he did his best to support himself. He blinked, dust flitting into his eyes. He blinked again, wanting to rub his eyes with his hands, except they were pinned under slabs of concrete.

He couldn't feel his legs.

He winced, leaning back again and letting out a loud moan of pain. Left arm. He had to check his left arm.

He still had feeling there. He wiggled his fingers. Nothing seemed to be broken.

Right arm was okay, too. His thumb felt broken, but it was okay because at least he'd survived the explosion.

He couldn't feel his legs. He couldn't see them, either.

God, he hoped he still had his legs. He imagined riding around town, on a wheelchair, with no legs, some nurse or stranger pushing him around, as he drooled on himself, and he shuddered.

Better not think about that.

So far, he didn't seem to be dead, which was good. Not dead was pretty good.

Was Maria dead?

He thought about it, and decided if she was dead he might as well be dead, too.

So she better not be dead.

Thirteen Bannerman Road was gone.

Pretty much his whole world was gone.

"Help!" he whimpered, struggling against the concrete. "Help!" his voice was hoarse, and he pushed at the slab on top of him.

It only seemed to shift the mass, and he stopped.

Shit.

How the hell was he supposed to get out of this?


	8. Day Three- Early Morning

In a black room completely shrouded by darkness, two figures stood, side-by-side, analysing the test results from a computer quietly. The dark-haired figure brushed away a strand of stray hair from her face, and shifted between her feet as she spoke. "So what do we know about them?"

The taller male with dark, tanned skin stood up straighter, adjusting himself to lean over the computer, as if to get a better view. "Just about everything. Now that that computer's out of the way, we've got the advantage."

"That thing kept on blocking your transmission signal," the woman pointed out, frowning.

"And now it isn't," the man said simply, shrugging and clicking on another file on the computer, and pulling up a CCTV of 13 Bannerman Road, now destroyed from the explosion.

"Question is, who is she?" the woman inquired softly, jabbing a finger on the screen at a brown-haired woman who was coughing heavily under the rubble.

"Nikki Smith," the man spoke, frowning. "Fascinating, that one is. Apparently, she knows more than she lets on. Worked for UNIT for a few months, until they realised her potential. Spent seven years in a UNIT holding facility confinement. Didn't have any human contact, 'save for testing now and then."

"That's not what I want to know," the woman snapped, quickly losing her patience as she drummed three thick, clean red fingernails against the black surface of the table. "I want to know who is a threat."

The man shook his head. "That's the problem, ma'am. She _is_ a threat. She knows too much. Too clever."

"How has she survived this long?" the woman inquired.

"Talks," the man explained. "She jabbers, until the people hunting her down are absolutely convinced she's more use to them alive than dead."

The woman smirked. "We'll see how well she talks with a bullet in her head. Where is Luke Smith? He was the original target."

"So far? Nowhere," the man said, shaking his head. "He's slippery. Clever, too. He'll know someone's after him."

"Keep an eye and report if anything happens," the woman demanded. "I'll pay them a little trip. I'll go inform the commander about what we've learned."

* * *

"Luke! Luke!"

"Luke! Are you there?!"

"Luke!"

"Down!" Cough. "Here!"

"There's a platform crushing him. I need you to help me pull it up, okay? Count of three. One. Two. Three!"

With a shriek, Sky and Nikki slowly pushed the platform off. Nikki kneeled next to Luke and tossed small rocks aside and bits of rubble, then helped him up.

"You okay?" Sky asked, concerned.

Luke smirked. "Okay. I think my wrist's broken. And I need a shower." Cough. He halfheartedly dusted at himself with his good hand.

"We'll split up," Nikki said. "Sky and I will go look for Rani and Clyde, you go look for Maria, okay?"

Luke nodded. "Okay. Split up."

And they split up.

Luke carefully picked his way around the fallen rubble, staggering in the dust and nearly tripping flat on his face a few times.

"Maria!" he screamed.

No answer.

Luke panicked, his heart pounding so hard he thought it might explode in his throat. "Maria!" he screamed again.

Oh, god. Not her too. Not her too. Not her too.

"Maria!"

No use. Was she buried? He fell onto his knees, and frantically began picking away at the rubble he could move, trying to think.

Basement. Basement, she had a basement. That was where her computers were. She worked where the basement was, right? Maybe she was working there last night.

_Please, please be in the basement_, Luke prayed.

* * *

"One, two, three, pull!" Nikki shouted, Sky and her throwing the collapsed debris of off Rani. Coughing, they slowly helped her up, dust stinging her eyes she looked around frantically.

"Clyde, is he okay?" she asked.

Nikki swallowed, grit rinsing down her throat. "We found Luke. He's looking for Maria."

Rani stumbled, leaning onto Nikki for support. "Where is Clyde?" she choked out the words.

Sky swallowed. "Dead."


	9. Day Three- Afternoon

And just like that, Rani's entire world collapsed right on top of her.

"What?"

"He's dead," Nikki said, looking down. "Sorry."

Rani started hyperventilating. "No. No, no. No, no no no no. No, no no! He can't- shut up! Shut up!"

Her voice was hoarse, choking on dust, and Nikki couldn't help but tear up a bit. "I'm sorry. Sorry."

"Shut up!" Rani choked. "Shut up, will you! He can't be dead, he just can't! He can't. Be. Dead!"

"Sorry," Nikki said, grimacing and pulling a chloroform cloth out of her pocket and pressing it to Rani's face. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and her body became limp. "But we need to get out of here," Nikki finished.

* * *

"Any news?" the woman asked.

"Not much, although Clyde Langer appears to be dead," the man said.

"Good," the woman smirked, "get a team out there and on it."

* * *

"Maria!" Luke screamed.

Silence.

And then,

"Help!"

"Maria! Where are you?" he shrieked.

There was a loud, shrill whistle as someone blew into what apparently was some kind of a train whistle. Luke jumped to it, pulling the rubble away and digging the rocks out, and breathing a sigh of relief when he saw a closed cupboard door.

The cupboard door slowly creaked open, and out clambered Maria, almost completely clean compared to him, caked in dust and grim. He helped her out by the hand, and she slowly stood.

"How'd you get in there?" he asked, frowning.

"I was in the basement, and someone shouted about a bomb, so I dove into the cupboard," Maria shrugged.

"Saved by the Harry Potter cupboard," Luke smirked.

"Yep. 'S everyone else okay?"

"I think so. Nikki and Sky are looking for Rani and Clyde, and you're okay, so-"

A very, very loud scream pierced the air and Luke froze, trepidation slowly trickling down his spine.

Nikki.

That was Nikki's scream.

Since when did Nikki scream over anything but a One Direction poster?

A big, black van pulled up into the driveway, and Luke watched in horror as Nikki, Sky, Clyde and Rani were yanked into the van, tossed roughly into the middle seats.

He grabbed Maria's hand. "Hey!" he shouted.

Two hooded figures stared at him.

Someone held up a gun of some kind.

Then everything went black.

* * *

The instant Luke woke up, his first instinct was to strangle the person that was currently sitting next to him in the van, wearing a dark hood.

"Ow!" the person hissed.

Head pounding, he whirled around and smacked the person in the head to the best of his ability in the cramped space. Curling his fingers into a knuckle-white clench, he punched the person in the stomach.

The person grabbed his hair and forced him to look up, and, as if on cue, the hood dropped off their head.

Luke froze, in horror.

"Mark?!"

"You are the worst fighter ever, can I just say that?" Mark groaned, letting go of his hair. "Then again, it's a bit embarrassing that you're the one who-"

"What the hell are you doing?" Luke nearly screamed.

"A thank-you would be a bit nice, don't you think?" Mark asked, raising an eyebrow in inquiry. "No?"

"You- you kidnapped us, and- did you blow up our house?" Luke snapped, anger seeping through him like venom in a snake.

"Yes, I did blow up our house, because I happen to have this sadistic streak that wants to destroy the neighborhood we grew up in- what do you think?" Mark seethed.

Luke stared at him in confusion.

"Calm down, Luke," Nikki said, from next to him. He turned, not having noticed she was there. "No, really, calm the heck down. Let me explain."

For the next few minutes, Nikki talked and explained her plan. As soon as she'd heard the bomb was going off, she'd known they were being targeted. After all, she'd assumed it for a while, although she wasn't sure who was targeting them. To take precautions, she'd called Mark and Emily who she knew were working at UNIT, and asked them to fake a kidnapping from the scene. 'Sparky' was able to take out one of the CCTV cameras, but one was still intact. They'd found Clyde, and he'd convinced them to pretend he was dead so his mum would be all right. Of course, when they'd found Rani at last, they'd had to convince her he was dead, too, something Nikki said she never wanted to see again. Then, Mark and Emily had gotten there, and picked them up.

Luke picked up the gun Mark had 'shot' him with, and looked into the trigger barrel warily. "What kind of gun is this, exactly?"

"A Nerf gun," Mark teased.

"Seriously?" Emily asked from the front seat.

"It's a tranquilizer," Mark explained. "Why?"

Luke sighed, running his hands through his hair, tense. "Nothin'. It's just that... well, someone just blew up our entire street, Mr. Smith went mad and he's dead, and we have no alien tech or anything to fight with except for a tranquilizer."

"I can make a fire!" Nikki suggested.

Luke turned, looking in the back of the van where Emily was sleeping next to Mark, her head lolling out to rest on his shoulder. Sky was sleeping too, although her head was leaning on the window.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say we were just a bunch of mates going out on a camping trip," Nikki said, dryly.

"You said someone's targeting us," Luke said, turning to face Nikki. "Who do you think it is? Why would anyone target us?"

Nikki shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe they're the people we're trying to stop, maybe they have something to do with the population going down."

"There was an order set out to kill you," Emily said from the front seat, "back at UNIT HQ."

Luke felt his heart sinking. "What, why me? What have I-"

"She means me, stupid," Nikki mumbled.

"What? Why?"

"I've got information, which they don't want," Nikki said simply.

"What did you do?" Luke demanded, fear rising in his throat and threatening to choke him. "Is this why they blew up Bannerman Road, to kill you?"

"I don't know," Nikki said simply.

Luke grabbed her by the shoulders. "Since you've arrived, I've seen a person come back to life, had people try to kill me on the streets, and my entire neighborhood blown up. So, I will ask you again. What does UNIT have against you?"

Nikki turned to look him in the eye. "I worked for them, they turned on me, and locked me up because I'm _clever_. All right?"

"No, it's not," Luke said, stiffly.

Nikki groaned. "I don't know. I don't remember. I've done a whole bunch of things, and-"

"Then who are you?" Luke asked, frowning. "Who the hell are you, Nikki? Hmm? 'Cos you might as well not exist."

"I'm 128," Nikki said, cheerfully.

"This isn't time for joking around, now, you-"

"Well, technically, 32, but that's Slitheen years. Slitheen age at 1/4 the equivalent to humans. 128 years is, well, pretty difficult to count," Nikki said, rolling her eyes. "I don't know, all right? Look, it's probably just a coincidence, all right?"

Luke opened his mouth to say something, to interject, but before he could manage to get a word out, someone broke him off in mid-word.

"Where are we?"

"Clyde's not dead," Nikki said, turning to face Rani, and offering her a little smile. "Don't worry. Sorry. We had to tell you he was dead, don't blame him, he was only trying to protect his family."

Rani glared at her. "Don't. Ever. Do. That. To. Me. Again. Ever."

"Look at her, she's so ill she can't even say a sentence properly," Nikki teased, swatting at the air with her hand.

"Oh," Rani groaned, letting herself collapse against the seat, closing her eyes as dust kicked up in the air. "What happened?"

Nikki told her.

"Why would anyone target us, though?" Rani asked, frowning and rubbing some dirt off her cheek tiredly. "I mean, why would they want to target us?"

"Maybe they think we're a threat," Nikki suggested. "Maybe they think that we're... dunno. No clue."

Luke fisted his hair, listening to them talk. It'd been ages since he'd seen Mark and Emily, actually an entire month. They'd not really had a lot of time to visit him, the last time he'd seen them was at the funeral. They had kept in touch via Mr. Smith, but...

Oh. Mr. Smith.

He keot forgetting the computer was dead. The computer, the little crystal that was almost the last memory he had of Sarah Jane. K9 had shut down ages ago, and hadn't budged an inch since.

Both his parents were dead. Mum, and Dad. Dad, before he'd ever met him. He wondered what his Dad was like. He'd read that a lot of people who never met their dads tended to treat their older siblings as a father figure.

Then again, how could he be sure, right?

Maria seemed to sense his sadness, because she placed a hand on his shoulder and did her best to lean into a hug (the seat belt restricted movement like that), and she closed her eyes.

His own eyes were puffy and red with emotion, and he did his best to clean up the tears, wiping them and the grime off his face and squeezing his eyelids shut.

"Where are we going?" he croaked, suddenly very, very tired.

"Back to my house," Emily said, "Until we can find somewhere safer."

Luke nodded. "Okay."

Feeling as safe as he possibly could in a situation like this, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.


	10. Day Three- Evening

Luke joined the rest of the team back in Emily's work room, little mahogany book cases lining the place, with an old, antique library lamp resting on the clean, polished wood desk. Small pieces of paper with clippings were scattered about, and Nikki was currently pulling up files on the computer and reading them aloud (or at least the interesting bits).

He wiped his hair dry with a hand towel, stalking over to the desk and placing a hand on the wood, leaning forward to get a better view of the screen, eyes scanning each of the little typed words.

"Apparently, there's a lot of information of me and you on the Web," Nikki said, raising an eyebrow. Her purple framed reading glasses looked funny on her, and Luke suppressed the urge to yank them off and throw them against the west wall. He pictured them falling and shattering, the little purple bead cord scattering on the floor, and shook his head. "So! I'm going to delete it all," Nikki said, typing something rapidly.

"You can't delete every bit of us off the 'Net," Luke said, frowning. "I mean-"

"Yes, I can, 'cos I'm plain genius," Nikki exclaimed, beaming. "It'll just take some time. Oh, if only Mr. Smith were here, 'cos then it'd be a lot easier. Then again, he complains a lot when he does work. I dunno if you noticed that. You probably did, anyway." Oblivious to his inner turmoil, Nikki rambled on, and Luke rolled his eyes. Clever as she was, she could be very, very clueless at times.

"Why are you s'posed to get rid of us anyway, I mean, aren't we fine, aren't we safe?" Luke asked, furrowing his brow.

"We are," Nikki said, pausing in her typing, if only for a nanosecond, "but it's just to be safer. Just in case."

Luke shook his head. "Gosh, you're paranoid."

Nikki smirked. "IKR."

"What's I K R?" Luke rolled his eyes at her response.

"Text speak for I Know Right," Nikki explained, although she seemed distracted by what she was typing.

"We aren't texting, now are we?"

"We-ll, I'm a lazy talker," Nikki mumbled, eyes still focused on the screen. She smirked, then hit the 'Enter' key with her pointer finger, hard.

"I'm guessing that means we cease to exist on the internet, then," Luke mused.

"Mainly for public profile, anyway," Nikki said, tucking some hair behind her ear. "It's a virus that puts up a little wall. Sky helped me develop it."

Luke rolled his eyes. "Sounds like you've got an obsession there," he mumbled.

Nikki looked up in confusion. "What, with computers? I'm no computer whiz, I mean, I can't even open up Safari properly on an iPad. I just follow instructions. Identic memory. Think I got that from that lovely Welsh guy that came onboard from that parallel universe- can't be sure, exactly. Hundred words per minute, too, not sure where that came from. Not a lot of the kids on the TARDIS had iPads, so don't ask me for help with Angry Birds or wh-"

"I meant Sky," Luke said, cutting her off mid-ramble as he carefully wrung water out of his soaked hair with the towel, catching the droplets before they hit Emily's nice wooden floor.

Nikki blushed, if only slightly. "Now, hey, there, mister. You trying to say something?"

"Not anything that I haven't seen," Luke shrugged.

"You're just jealous," Nikki mumbled, although her face was slightly red. "Oh, shut up. Just shut up."

"I didn't say anything."

"I'm so gonna kill you."

"How are you kids gettin' on in here, then?" Maria asked, pushing the door open with a sneakered foot, carrying a tray full of sandwiches.

"Fine," Nikki said. Her face was red, and Luke looked like he'd just rewatched 'Charlie Bit My Finger'. In other words, he was laughing so hard he could barely communicate. Maria frowned and placed the tray on the desk, pushing away papers with the edge of the silver platter.

"Okay, then," Maria mumbled. "Mark tried to make food, but it got burnt-"

"Typical," Nikki mused, 'though her face was still red.

"-and then Emily and I stopped him from burning down the house, and taught him how to make sandwiches instead," Maria announced.

"Oh, Lord, he made the food," Luke mumbled, picking up one of the crust-less cookie-cutter sandwiches and fitting it into his mouth, chewing on the celery. "Now I know the world is ending," he said, words muffled by the lettuce.

"Gross," Nikki said, making a face as she pulled out bits of tomato and celery and tossed them back on the tray. "Who the heck eats these things? I'm a carnivore, incase you were wondering. No, don't look at me like that. Blame that T-rex that got on the TARDIS that one time, I can't help being like everything that's been on that damn ship."

Maria rolled her eyes. "Well, that's not a sentence you hear every day. And, mind you, I think they're lovely. Mark's a very good cook."

Nikki and Luke looked at each other and rolled their eyes. "I thought you liked Luke, not Mark," Nikki said.

Luke averted his gaze.

So did Maria.

"Gosh, the sexual tension in here could choke an elephant," Nikki said, licking mayonnaise off her fingers and pushing her spinny chair away from the desk and standing up. "See you kids, I'll be in the kitchen, teaching Mark how to cook a soufflé. No, sorry, how **not** to cook a soufflé. Forget what I know, sometimes."

Maria chuckled and slid into the chair once the door creaked shut. "Funny how she can be so wrong and so right."

Luke groaned, leaning on the desk. "I know, right?"

Maria absently played with her hair. "You know, I really like you."

"Maria, th-"

"Shut up for a minute, 'cos I just want to say something, okay?" Maria asked, holding a hand up to signal silence. Luke closed his mouth. "I really, really like you, and it's okay if you don't like me back, I get it, but I just had to tell you, because I look at you and I see nothing but anger, every day, and-"

"That's not..." Luke paused, choking on emotion. "Okay. Let me start over. I like you too, Maria, it's just..." suddenly, the ground was the most fascinating thing he'd ever seen in his life. "I sometimes think that if I open myself up to anyone I'll lose them. Seems to be happening a lot, recently."

"Yeah," Maria said. "I know."

Today, the floor was apparently very interesting.

"I'll tell you what I'll do," Maria said. "Tonight, I'm going to go to the cafe, 'cross the road. Then, I'm gonna sit there at 7:00 PM and order a table for two. You don't have to come, but if you do, then-"

"Okay. Got it," Luke said.

"Okay, then," Maria breathed. "Right. So. I'll go... uh... that way, then."

She stood and walked out of the office, briskly.

Luke groaned and put his face in his hands.

Realising what this meant.

Where the hell was he gonna find a nice outfit?!


	11. Day Three- Midnight

Maria was working at her computer, typing something frantically.

"Find anything?" Nikki causally sauntered in, placing a hand on her hip as she leaned against the wall to study what Maria was working on.

Maria shook her head. "I found a correlation between the murders in this area and each time we were given a message."

"Murders, eh?" Nikki asked.

"Yeah," Maria mumbled. "It's odd, 'though, 'cos apparently people've been dropping dead in the streets, all their life force taken out of them."

Nikki shrugged. "Well, look into it."

"I just noticed it now," Maria said, furrowing her brow. "Do you think it might be connected?"

"No clue," Nikki's response came. "Just, er, yeah."

Maria didn't glance up from her computer. "Mind telling Luke for me? I'm, uh... gonna see him in a bit, I mean, but... well, I hope I'm going to see him, and-"

"Yeah, yeah," Nikki shrugged.

She exited the room, walking down the hall and cherishing the creak of each floorboard. She turned to Sky's room, cracking the door open.

Sky was sitting on her bed, nose in a book.

"Hey, Nikki, look at this!" she beamed, Nikki approaching where she was seated and plopping down on the mattress next to her. "Apparently, there's this thing in Greek folklore called 'Aerico'. Legend says that it goes out in the open, sometimes disguised in human form, and gives out diseases to people like malaria. Isn't that strange? I mean, with all the illnesses and stuff, the Greek thought of creatures that..."

Nikki listened to her babble, smiling to herself. "Aerico, eh? Met him. He's very polite. Best friends with Death."

Sky rolled her eyes, then noticed the crushed expression on Nikki's face. "Hey... you okay?"

Nikki nodded, 'though she looked like she was crying. "Fine. Yeah, I'm fine."

Sky watched her, perplexed. "Uh, okay."

Nikki fixed herself. "Tell me more about Aerico?"

Sky repositioned herself on the bed, checking the book once more. "Well, the legends say that he originated from..."

* * *

Luke looked at his reflection in the mirror warily, examining every last inch of his face. Apart from a pretty big cut, he seemed to be okay. Taking one last glance in the mirror, and fixing his tie, he stepped out of the restroom and hurried down the hall, just cracking the front door open when-

"Are you going out?" Nikki asked, approaching him by the steps.

"Yes! No. Probably. Maybe?" Luke suggested, pulling out 'innocent look number 40' from his book of emotions and sticking it on his face.

Nikki sighed. "Okay, but, take this, okay?" she handed him a sonic pen, and he stared at it incredulously.

"Seriously?" he asked.

"You never know," Nikki shrugged, and Luke groaned.

"You're paranoid, all of you," he mumbled, sticking the pen into his pocket and pushing the door open, leaning his eight on the sticky white paint and glancing out the little rectangular window slit.

"Bye," Nikki said, smiling.

The door slowly shut as Luke stepped out into the cloak of the night, fixing his clean brown jacket again and doing his best to look casual as he continued to walk across the road. He watched for cars, and when there weren't any, he took off in an excited run to the cafe.

Luke froze as he approached the cafe, seeing Maria sitting at one of the tables, reading a menu lit by a very small fake plastic candle. She wore a blue dress, and her hair was tied up nicely in a waterfall braid.

"Nice dress," he called, as he approached the table and sat down next to her.

"Oh, I wasn't expecting you to come," she said simply.

"Well, I did."

"I can see that."

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

They sat in awkward silence for a minute.

"Aren't you going to look at the menu?" Maria asked, nodding towards the little black book in front of him.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, right, sorry, forgot," Luke mumbled, scrambling to grab the menu and at the same time look casual.

"I could hear the commas in that sentence," Maria teased, turning her attention back to the menu.

Luke sweated a bit, looking at the options on the menu. What would be weird to order? A latte? But it was nearly midnight. Maybe a bowl of soup? Small crab cake? Wait, what was a crab cake? In what way could you make a crab a cake? Was it a cake of crab, or just a cake that was called a crab cake? Cheesecake wasn't cheese, it was a cake flavored like cheese, so was a crab cake the same?

Bloody hell, who would invent something and call it a crab cake?

"Sir, sir, what would you like to order?"

Luke nearly jumped when he realised that the waiter had been waiting for him to order for about a few minutes now. He quickly closed the menu and flushed a slight tinge of pink. "I'll, uh, have the crab cake."

Damn! He hadn't meant to order that!

The waiter nodded, giving him a knowing look, then took the menu and headed back into the restaurant.

"Uh, so, you look... really nice," Luke suggested.

Maria looked at him blankly.

"Your hair looks really cool," he said.

Cool! Cool! He was turning into Clyde!

Come off it, he was a grown man, an adult.

An adult who'd pretty much never been on a date before.

"Thanks," Maria said, blinking.

"It looks like that shadow thing we saw at the lake," Luke tried.

Maria blanched. "What shadow thing?"

Luke sweated. Had someone dumped a bucket on his palms? "Eh, you know, that alien. Alien shadow thing."

Maria's hand flew to her hair.

"Not that your hair looks like an alien," Luke said, backtracking. "This was a lovely looking alien. Very pretty. Kind of flowy. Like a lake. A black, flowy, shadowy lake."

Maria gave him a funny look. "Uh, okay."

Thankfully, the waiter returned at that moment, placing a plate in front of Maria and then a plate in front of Luke.

Luke blanched. That wasn't a cake, or a crab.

Whaaaat?

"Thanks," Luke said, smiling at the waiter and turning back to Maria and then at...

The crab cake.

That was not a crab.

Or a cake.

He turned his complete attention to the food and swallowed. Tentatively, he reached out with his fork and took a careful bite.

Actually, it tasted pretty good.

They ate in silence for a moment, silverware clinking against the white glass.

The waiter returned a few minutes later, to ask if everything was fine.

Luke nodded nervously. "Yeah, we're good."

"Fine," Maria said, smiling and nodding.

Then the waiter froze, expression falling flat off his face. He turned a sickly shade of pale white, and pressed his lips together.

Luke frowned. "Are you oka-"

The waiter fell onto the table, dishes and all scattering onto the ground. Maria gasped and Luke closed his eyes.

On their bloody date.

"Look!" Maria said, furiously pointing at the others in the area. A woman and a man were on the sidewalk, the man collapsed on the floor. The woman appeared to be shaking him.

More and more couples and singular people on the block began to fall over.

Screams erupted in the area.

"Holy shit," Luke breathed. "Check his pulse, will you?"

Maria did. "Dead," she said.

Luke grabbed his hair. "God."

"I was cross-referencing the grid items, I noticed there was a correlation between the deaths in this one area and each time we received a message," Maria noted, pushing the body over.

"Deaths?" Luke echoed, surprised. Nobody'd told him anything about murders.

"Yeah," Maria said, frowning. "I told Nikki to tell you."

Luke shook his head. "Maybe she forgot."

Maria frowned. "Huh, that's odd."

"Er, continue," Luke said, waving a hand dismissively.

"What if it's connected to the people disappearing from the population?" Maria questioned.

"Nikki?" Luke held up a finger to his ear. "Get into the house and tell everyone it's not safe. There are people dropping dead out here- wait, no, don't come outside, what if it's a virus or-"

Luke and Maria turned as the front door to Emily's house swung open and out came Nikki, wearing a brown trenchcoat over her nightgown.

"Seriously?" she asked, holding up the alien gadget Luke recognised as the one she used to count the population every day. "Seriously?"

Luke dashed up to her, feet sore against the ground as he ran. Maria trailed behind him. "They just started dropping dead," he said, voice laced with panic, although there was an underlying tone off annoyance.

Nikki ran a hand through her hair. "Ich habe meine verloren glauben an die Menschheit," she muttered.

Luke stared. "Nikki, I don't speak French."

Nikki grabbed something out of her pockets, wincing as her hand found something apparently sharp. "It's not French, it's German, _dummkopf_. Gotcha!"

She held up some sort of med-device, numb fingers waving it in the air as she ran off towards one of the victims. People were giving angry shouts, now, and Nikki busied her attention towards the corpse.

"Scheiß drauf," Nikki muttered, pulling up the body. "Go on, help me carry him. We need to get him back to the house."

Maria hesitantly ran to the other side of the corpse, and lifted up his legs. Luke took the front end, slipping his arms under the man's neck and pulling up, hoisting the corpse back across the street.

"Nobody saw that," Nikki said, as she pushed open the front door. As soon as the door was locked, Luke and Maria dropped the man immediately onto the floor.

"I need to do a quick check, someone'll have seen that and the cops'll be here, so shh for a sec, will you?" Nikki snapped as she elevated the man's head, placing it on her knees. She took the alien gadget she'd been using earlier and placed it on his heart.

"What does that do?" Maria asked.

"All sorts of things. Mainly, it checks to see what killed people," Nikki said, nodding her head to the left. "Helpful in investigations, but... well, never mind." she made a face. "Now, let's see here..."

The result blipped up on the screen, and Maria strained to see. "What is it?"

Nikki swallowed. "Life energy. You know, that stuff I use to count the population? Each person has a certain amount of life force. This has been drained completely from him."

"Life force," Maria echoed, steadying herself against the wall.

"Is it connected?" Luke asked, just as there was a loud BANG at the front door.

* * *

_**Lots of fluff in this chapter~! Anyway, if you enjoyed it, please R&R, I will see you next chapter!**_

_**'Ich habe meine verloren glauben an die Menschheit' - I have lost my faith in humanity**_

_**'dummkopf' - stupid**_

_**'Scheiß drauf' - Screw it**_


	12. Day Four- Dawn

"Right, so, it's not safe, we need to get out," Nikki said, shoving the artefact back into her pocket an letting out a loud groan, sighing. "I've got the van parked in the back, had it there just in case. Luke, go get Rani and Clyde up and start the van, Maria, I need you to get Emily and Mark and meet Luke out there, you got me? I just need to go up and download some files from the computer onto my hard drive," she finished all in one breath, her tone a bit sharp and nasally.

"Seriously?" Luke groaned. "Okay."

He took off up the stairs, feet snagging on the carpet as he went. His hand found the railing and he stumbled up the steps to Clani's bedroom, glad they'd both opted for the bunkbed and threw the door open, groping around for the light switch on the wall and flicking it up.

He dove towards Rani's backpack in the corner, grabbing things from the bedside table that looked useful and throwing them in.

"Okay, there are people outside, it's not safe, where can we go?" Luke asked. The two figures stayed still, so he stood up, dropping the pack on the floor and clapping his hands loudly. "Come on, shift!"

"What the hell, Luke?" Clyde mumbled, pulling the covers over his head. Luke groaned, walking briskly over to his bed and pulling all the covers off the bed. He did the same to Rani, and went over to the corner. Grabbing both zips on each end, he thrust the bag closed and slung one of the straps over his shoulder.

"Get up, go, go, go," Luke shouted. "Grab what you need and get out."

"Luke, it's nearly midnight!" Rani groaned.

"Yes, and there are people dropping dead out there like chickens, now get dressed and shift," Luke demanded. Rani jumped up, grabbing her coat from the corner.

"Stick with Luke; no more normal wake-ups," Clyde grumbled, wrapping a dark grey woollen coat around his shoulders, the buttons clacking against each other with each step he took.

"Come on, come on," Luke urged. "Get out the back door."

The three of them clambered down the stairs, Luke grabbing a smartphone lying on the edge of the bedside table as he went. The backpack was still strung over his shoulder, and he made his best effort to adjust it. The back door of the house flew open, hitting the wall with a smack that made half the house shake. Maria, Emily, and Mark were already outside, waiting next to the van.

"Haven't got the keys," Maria said, as Luke began to fumble around in his pocket.

"Shit!" he exclaimed, turning to Clyde and Rani. "Have you-"

"Oy, don't bloody ask me, 's not 's if I sleep with the car keys!" Clyde exploded.

Luke groaned. "Oh, great. No, hang on. Hang _on_," he said, nearly shouting the 'on' as he remembered the sonic in his pocket. He dug around for it on the inside pockets of his coat, pulling it out and pointing it towards the door. The van unlocked with a click, and he ushered everyone in, hopping into the front seat, starting the car up.

"Where's Nikki?" Emily asked.

* * *

Nikki tapped her fingers against the table, watching the computer optimise and load. Forty percent, fifty percent, sixty seven percent.

She didn't notice the weird, ghostly figure appear behind her, silently slipping through the floor.

"Hey!" she shouted, turning around, just in time to see the ghost-like figure emerge from the wooden tiles of the floor. Darkness pooled around its feet as it slowly morphed into the shape of a human. A dark, shadowy human. Its shape was not solid, but rather that of some swirly, unorthodox creature, darkness falling off its length like mist.

She grinned, leaning against the desk, studying its figure. Its white, pearly eyes, dark transparent shape, shifting form. "Oh, that's lovely. You are lovely. What are you, then, a messenger? You behind the people outside?" she raised an eyebrow. "Wouldn't doubt it. You look like death. Er, no offence, or anything."

The figure looked at her.

"Eighty percent!" the computer behind her chirped.

"Oh, look, that's me, gotta go, see you!" Nikki said, turning around and dashing her hands through her hair, desperately. "Come on, come on, creepy ghost behind me, and I've had those on worst of days, but-"

She dropped the pencil in her hand and screamed.

Something was in her head. She bent over the desk, gasping, clawing at the wood for some form of support.

"Get. Out!" she screamed, as she felt whatever it was scratching, scrabbling around in her head, clawing at her memories like the nails of a cat. "OUT!" she bellowed.

Something grabbed at her memories like a vicegrip, and she screamed again.

Then it floated away and she fell on the desk, panting.

"Ninety percent," the computer told her.

"That," Nikki panted, turning around, "was very, very, rude, and I don't hope you'll-"

She froze.

The ghost.

It wasn't a ghost anymore. It'd taken a completely different shape.

"Asha?" she whispered.

Asha- oh, too familiar, too familiar- extended a hand. "Nikki," she breathed.

Nikki extended a hand, tracing her fingers along Asha's gloved hand. "You're- you're... real."

Asha smiled. "Yes. And I need you to do something for me."

Nikki dropped her hand, letting it fall back to her side. "You- you're dead. I specifically saw you, die. Well, you did, but you came back, paradox." she let out a teary chuckle. "Always forgetting the Paradox. Then again, there's no way you could remember the Year, you weren't on the Valiant, you were dead by that time."

"You have to find the Key," Asha said, her smile dropping, her expression becoming black and blank. "You need to destroy the Key. Destroy the Key. Destroy it."

Nikki smirked through her tears. "What if I don't?"

"You need to destroy the key," Asha repeated, monotone.

Nikki stared at her, for a long, long time. "Well, then again... Kinda busy with other happenings, 'f you don't mind. Don't have time to go about getting keys."

Asha took a step forward. "Destroy. The. Key."

Nikki flinched back a bit, approaching the window. "See, Asha, the thing is, during the time I knew you over the Year, there was one specific thing I've always noticed."

"What?"

"You only speak German around me," Nikki said, smirking.

Asha stopped.

Pause.

"So, then, I'll be off," Nikki spoke.

"You have no way of escape," Not-Asha hissed.

"Window's a great way to go," Nikki suggested. "And- ooh, look at that!" she said, holding up a flashdrive in her hand and grinning. "Hundred percent optimisation!"

Asha hissed and lurched towards her.

And Nikki dove out of the window.


	13. Day Four- Morning

"I don't believe this," Emily said, as she turned down the motorway, slightly throwing up her hands, just enough to display her annoyance but not enough to result in an actual car accident. "Why do we keep getting staked out? What do they want with us?"

"I don't know," Luke groaned. "Do you think someone's trying to kill us?" It was a possibility, although not one that Luke could exactly imagine.

"You aren't special, you aren't super smart, you don't have any weapons and hardly any intelligence, so I really don't see why anybody would give about you," Nikki summarised.

Luke snorted. "Thanks."

"I didn't mean it that way," Nikki sighed. "It's just, why come after us? Why not the government, or UNIT, or whatever, why us?"

"Maybe the deaths in that area were just an coincidence," Maria suggested.

"It was planned to be there," Luke mumbled. "Had to be."

Nikki nodded. "Yeah. There's just too much power involved with it."

click

"How would they find us, exactly?" Sky demanded. Nikki slowly lifted up her hands, biting her lip hard enough to draw blood. She kept her gaze on the cold metal gun pressed to her forehead. "How would they know to look for us?"

"Sky, put the gun down," Luke said, calm as he could. He had a feeling keeping calm might play some sort of a major role in this whole 'count the numbers' thing. "Come on."

"They would have to have at least a week to gather enough energy to create something at that scale," Sky hissed. "And you yourself said it couldn't be a coincidence." Sky looked positively furious in that moment, hair sprawled across her face, framing it like some sort of a murderous painted glare.

Nikki chewed on her cheek. "Okay, so even if I _am_ the one behind this, let's think logically, shall we? Who was it who suggested we relocate to Emily's house? Hmm... nope, not me. That was Emily. We were only there for a day, so even if I was tipping whoever's behind this off, that isn't a week."

"I don't believe it," Sky hissed.

"Sky, now, come on," Luke urged, holding up a hand as if in defence, "we've gotta talk this out. Let's talk this out, yeah?"

"We _are_ talking," Sky growled, gritting her teeth together.

"Luke," Maria hesitated, "you've gotta admit, there has been some funny things going on. Like Mr. Smith blowin' up... not a bomb, it was in the bloody house. And then I told her to tell you about the murders goin' on, and not a word."

Nikki's face was a blank sheet of confusion. "Whoa, whoa, hold the horses here, nobody said _anything_ about telling Luke anything. Geezus."

"Playing dumb," Sky growled. "So why don't you start talking now? What exactly were you downloading up in the attic, huh? What took you so long, Nikki? What were you doing in there?"

"I was- it- files!" Nikki shouted. "Files, okay? Just... files, and coordinates, and stuff, look, I've got the flash drive here!" she held it up.

"But then, we know she's clever enough to have a spare cover," Emily mumbled from the front.

"Oh, not you too!" Luke shouted, banging his head against the front seat and growling. "For God's sake, Emily!"

"You've gotta admit, it's weird, the things that are going on," Maria argued. "Numbers happen, dead guy in your garage, same day as she comes blundering in."

"I've been helping you, I'm on your side!" Nikki insisted.

"Tell us what you were doing in the attic!" Sky screamed.

"Nothin', okay? I wasn't- I was- I was downloading files!" Nikki stuttered. "If I wa-wanted to kill you all, I'd 'ave done it already, all right?"

"No, it isn't!" Sky argued. "What are you hiding, Nikki Smith?!"

"I'm not- I wasn't... I- I... O-oh, gr-great, you've br-brought back the d-damned stutter."

Luke looked at Nikki in utter confusion.

"Look," Nikki said, sighing. "There are a lot- lot of things about me y-you don't need t-to know, all right? There's-there's a lot of things that've happened, a-and I'm sorry, but none of them have anything to do with-with the other things that are happening now."

"Come on, Sky, give me the gun," Luke coaxed, wrapping his hand around the gun.

Sky bit her lip, tensing. "But she just-"

"I know, okay? I'll keep an eye on her. I just don't want anyone else to die, okay?" Luke asked. "Okay?"

Sky's grip on the gun slowly loosened, and she let him take it. "Okay."

Luke sighed, rolling down the window and throwing it out.

Sky's jaw dropped. "Hey, that was a perfectly good Beretta 92FS Inox!" she cried.

"Yeah, and it was about to blow a hole in my best friend," Jack mumbled.

"That was polished and nickel-plated!" Sky said, in disbelief.

"And now, it's out the window," Luke smirked.


	14. Day Four- Evening

"Gr-great, now my hand's like a v-vibrator," Nikki mumbled, grabbing her wrist with her other hand to hold it still. "S-still, y-you could use it as- as a head massager. For heads. O-or other things. Although I don't think an-anybody's gonna get that lucky to-tonight."

"Shut up," Sky hissed from the other side of the seat. "Just shut up, will you?"

Nikki raised an eyebrow. "H-hey, I- I'm not the one pointing guns in you-your face." she groaned, wiping a bead of sweat off of her forehead.

Luke frowned. It was true, Nikki was certainly acting strange, but the haunted look in her eyes was back. He should know that look, it was the same look he'd done his best to hide for ages after Mum had died (and he really, really didn't want to think about Mum right now). Something odd was definitely happening, but he wasn't sure if Nikki even trusted him enough to tell him.

The car pulled up by an old warehouse, and they all loaded out of the car. Sky pushed Nikki in front of her.

"Hands on the back of your head," she snapped. Nikki rolled her eyes.

"Real-really, though, 'm I gonna h-have to keep my arms up for t-too long? Hurts l-like heck," she rambled. "V-very annoying. Don't like keeping m-my arms up. H-hey, isn't this stutter annoying? 'S like w-when you're a little kid, and y-you cry so-so much you can't even t-t-talk, so you start hyp-hyperventilating. Ha!"

"Get inside!" Sky growled, shoving Nikki into the warehouse.

"Y-you're just like my old boss," Nikki grumbled.

"Come on!" Sky shouted. "Hurry it up!"

"N-no, but re-really," Nikki muttered. "Honestly. If I walked any fast-faster, you'd be able t-to put me in a Roadrunner commercial."

"Sky, come on, this is getting ridiculous!" Luke hissed as they stormed into the warehouse.

"Where are we?" Emily asked, frowning.

"Old warehouse. Should be safe, but we'll need to move again tomorrow," Luke said, tossing his coat onto the floor by the doorway. "Clyde, help me with the door," he instructed. They pushed it shut, sealing the room in darkness.

"Torch," Luke said. Maria tossed him hers and he switched it on, shining it at the wall. "Emily, can you help me find a light or a generator?"

"Nice gun," Nikki muttered. "M-must have a very fast sp-speed. Fun. W-well, not so fun when y-you're looking into the barrel of it."

"What is on this flash drive?" Sky demanded, holding up the black plastic object with the little white slider.

"W-well, some porn tapes and a-a couple of CDs," Nikki said sarcastically.

Sky pushed the gun on her forehead. "Stop kidding around and tell me!" she shouted.

"Where is the bloody light?" Luke yelled.

"Sky, come on, put down the gun," Clyde groaned.

"Didn't Luke take yours off you?" Maria asked with an odd look on her face.

"Two-gun girl," Sky smirked.

"Sound-sounds like my kind of-"

"Shut up," Sky groaned. "Can you shut up for five seconds?"

"Nope!" Nikki beamed. "S-so, you gonna stop shoving the gun in-in my f-face so we can talk?"

"Not until you tell me what's on this flash drive!" Sky said, exasperated. Luckily, at this moment, the lights clicked on in the warehouse and Luke clapped his hands together in excitement.

"Let there be light!" he grinned, before walking over to Sky and taking the flash drive from her.

"She won't tell me what's on it," Sky said, still keeping her gaze on Nikki.

"We'll just have to check and see," Luke told her, patting Nikki on the shoulder and slipping his laptop out of its case. He tapped on the space bar of the keyboard as he waited for it to load, before sliding the flash drive into the slot.

"Don't," Nikki interrupted, and Luke turned his head to look at her.

"What's on it, Nikki?" he asked quietly.

"J-Just don't look at it," she muttered, head down.

"Sky, it's locked, can you hack it?" Luke voiced loudly. Sky handed the gun to him as she went over to the computer and typed in a code to break down the firewall.

"Easy-peasy," Sky said, handing the laptop back to Luke.

"What the hell's this?" Luke stared at the screen as if some sort of bug-eyed monster had popped out and was protruding towards him from the screen. "Seriously? Epic Battle Fantasy files... Pokemon trading card data... screenshots of Tommy Knight?"

"He looks like you," Nikki mumbled, before blushing, if only on a minute scale. "T-That's my old h-home drive. Fr-from when I was f-f-fourteen."

"I noticed," Luke muttered, clicking on another of the items and highlighting it in the default blue detector.

"What's that?" Sky demanded, glancing over Luke's shoulder at the screen.

"Population counts... screenshots of Internet files... tell me, what is the Key, exactly?" Luke wondered, frowning at the laptop and eyeing the little text words nervously. The Key... it sounded a bit familiar, but he wasn't sure where he'd heard it before. Something about the name, whatever it was, sent chills down his spine.

_The Key has to be destroyed._

Luke blinked, shaking off the thought. Where had that come from?

Ignoring the strange occurrence, he clicked on another file, his finger rapidly drumming against the space bar on the keyboard in quick beats of three (never four, not anymore).

"Can you stop tapping?" Nikki blurted. Luke glanced at her in wary surprise. It'd been the first thing she'd said since Sky held a gun to her head in the car that had not been mumbled or she had stuttered to speak.

Luke trusted her to tell him what she was hiding from him eventually. He wanted to know, but he wouldn't invade her privacy like that because he himself was hiding secrets.

He bit his lip, furrowing his brow at the files.

"They're all rubbish, essentially," Luke spoke up. "Not a lot of stuff. Just screenshots and saved links."

"T-thought they might be useful," Nikki smirked.

"The stutter ruins the confidence thing, y'know," Luke muttered, licking his lower lip and clicking on the last file.

_ORDER TO KILL_

_luke smiTH_

_sky smith_

_rani chandra _

_clydE langer_

_emily smith_

_marKus smith_

_asha EvelYn_

"Whoaaa," Sky drawled, gun still gripped tightly in her hand as she leaned over to see the computer. "What the hell?"

"Whoever wrote this does not speak English," Rani mumbled, moving over to the laptop and crossing her legs, elbows propped up on her knees and head resting in the palms of her hands. She furrowed her eyes, as if to see the text better. "Why would anyone want to kill us?"

"Nikki's the only one not on the list," Sky noted.

"I am on the l-list," Nikki mumbled.

"There is no 'Nikki' listed anywhere," Sky pointed out.

"There is a-an Asha Evelyn," Nikki retorted sharply, shifting a little. Sky jumped slightly, but she relaxed her arm. "You gonna put down the water pistol now? Yeah, don't give me that look. I know a real gun when I see one."

Sky frowned. "It isn't a water pistol."

"Well, it isn't a-a gun," Nikki exclaimed, crouching down next to the computer. "You done trying to k-kill me?"

"Like I was ever gonna shoot," Sky mumbled.

"Dominatrix," Nikki sang, before turning her attention to the computer. (And a little bit to Sky.) "Ok-okay, well, Asha Evelyn was a r-real person."

"What's she doing on this list, then?" Rani inquired, leaning closer to the laptop and pressing a finger against the screen.

Nikki swallowed. "I knew her for a Year or so."

Luke could almost hear the capital letters in that one, but didn't say anything to contradict her. Just let her continue.

"How do you mean?" Sky asked quietly.

Nikki bit her lip, pausing. Luke could tell she was filtering the information she wanted to tell them, trying to figure out which parts she wanted to tell them and which she would rather keep a secret.

"Asha Evelyn... nice girl. Brunette. Love brunettes." Sky rolled her eyes. "Anyway, w-we were kind of friends. Sort of. F-for this year. But she turned on m-me, turned out she was working against me the entire time," Nikki explained, averting her gaze from Luke's stare as the last words slowly hit home. "She tried t-to kill me, and when pick-up time came fo-for me, I pretended I was her, Asha Evelyn, and masqueraded for her for the rest of the year."

"I don't understand, you mean to say you had someone after you for a year, and they sent Asha to... what?" Sky began.

"Pick up," Nikki said, leaning forward and frowning.

"But how would you pretend you were her?" Sky wondered.

"I... killed her..." Nikki mumbled. "Sort of. It was self-defence."

"You have got to be kidding me!" Sky groaned, throwing up her arms in annoyance.

"At-at least I'm not killing you," Nikki rolled her eyes. "A-anyway, I think sometime during that year I developed a l-lovely stutter. Comes out sometimes when I'm stressed. V-very annoying, especially when you're begging or bargaining for your li-life. Ha."

The chuckle at the end of the sentence was essentially humourless but intended to lift their spirits.

It didn't.

* * *

Luke approached Nikki a few hours later.

She sat in an old, dusty black spinny chair, and she was kicking off from an old cabinet and spiralling backwards, then propelling herself forward with her feet.

"What?" she asked quietly. Her voice sounded very loud in the silence, though, and Luke winced.

"No, no, i's nothing," Luke mumbled, leaning against one of the cabinets very ungracefully, drawling his speech and skipping the 't' in the 'it's'.

Nikki sighed. "No, tell me." she traced a finger on the desk, wiping her fingers on the edges and watching the feathery dust fall, a slightly bemused expression written across her face.

"It's just... ya need to tell me what's going on," Luke told her, crouching down next to her. "You keep a lot of secrets close to your chest, and I get that. Really, I do. I do the same thing. But you need to get past your trust issues and tell me what's happening."

"The Valiant," Nikki mumbled, a half-smile appearing on her face as she spoke with yet another contradiction. "Great ship thing, really. 'Course, before that, I was hanging 'round your place, Bannerman Road. The four beats thing, you remember that?"

Luke nodded, watching her silently, nonetheless confused.

"Well, it's a hypnotism signal," Nikki explained. "_Powerful_ stuff." she scoffed, emphasis on the 'powerful'. "So I was tracking it. It's connected to the Archangel Network."

"You mean the phone thing?" Luke asked, confused.

Nikki nodded. "Yep. Anyway, I was investigating it, ended up in Germany. Bit of a mistake. Anyway, I was keeping an eye on my old boss, Jack, he still kept the comms up for me... Dunno why. I never actually actively worked for him... it was just a few incidents, 'though 'course that isn't the point."

Luke's head bobbed in a gesture for her to continue.

"That was how I met Asha, actually," Nikki mumbled. "Scheiße!" she swore. "That's all our relationship was, in the end, wasn't it? Just a load of shit..."

"Who was she?" Luke asked in a hushed tone.

"One of my dearest friends," Nikki mumbled, tracing engraved circles into the dusty wooden desk. "Well, or so I thought, after she betrayed me."

"Did you love her?" Luke asked, examining her expression with unease.

Nikki laughed. "Kay, Luke, just 'cos I'm a bit bender doesn't mean I go about drooling after every girl I come across."

Luke shook his head. "No, of course not. I was just asking, from what I've heard, it just sounded like-"

"Naw," Nikki mumbled. "I think... some moments, she really liked me, y'know? And some moments... she was just scared for herself. Not that I blame her, I was equally a coward."

Luke regarded her carefully, trepidation lacing his every word. "What did you do, Nikki?"

Nikki stared at the desk. "You know, if I could take it back, I would. Understand that, will you?" She didn't turn around, she could almost hear his nod from across the room. She sighed heavily, as if to breathe out the stabbing tension in the air.

"Well, s' like I said," Nikki mumbled. "I took her identity."

"Tell me," Luke urged.

And she did.


	15. Day Four- Midnight

_FB_

Head down.

That was the easiest way to go about things. She didn't look down just because she had to. To stare at the floor was to avoid the hatred or amusement in their eyes. The pain and grief and hopelessness that plagued her all too much. Half the guards were terrified of the Master, and she could not bring herself to hate them. Not when he had their families at bay.

At least they had someone to fight for, someone other than themselves.

She was doing this just for herself.

And she didn't deserve it.

"Asha!" the Master greeted her with all his disturbing cheeriness in his tone. "How are you doing this fine evening?"

"G-great, thanks," Nikki stuttered. "Fantastic," she added, breathing out the word in just a whisper to stave off the stutter. It was nearly maddening, not being able to speak at all. She placed the tray next to him on the table, carefully avoiding where he'd placed his feet on the horrifyingly clean surface.

And ignoring the blood on his shoes.

The Master glanced up at her, and she didn't dare to lock eyes with him, just stare at the floor.

"Do you want to see something, Asha?" he asked, amusement plain in his voice.

"S-Sir?" she questioned. Ironic, how she could only manage one word when she had a thousand to utter.

"Come on, off we go!" he shouted, clapping his hands together. Tish ran into the room.

"Tish, clean the blood off the table," he said, frowning. "I want to be able to see my reflection in it."

"Can't a-afford a mirror?" Nikki teased, carefully monitoring her humour. She knew the Master kept her because she was fascinating, because she reacted to him with both fear and humour. She was something different, and the Master liked different.

Unfortunately.

"Yes," the Master said, putting out his arm as if to escort her. She blinked, lacing her arm with his. The dirty fabric of her maid's outfit blended with the black of his suit.

Suit.

She didn't think about Torchwood very often. Most of them hated her. Although Ianto had slipped her the odd free coffee now and then, and Tosh had taken a bit of a liking to her, there was always that faint, sheer barrier of distrust behind their expressions.

"Come along, then, Asha," the Master grinned, walking her slowly to the room.

Asha recognised the path. She'd mentally memorised it. She knew where they were going, and a lump formed in her stomach, wondering what the Master wanted her in Jack's room for and what unpleasant tortures lay in store for her- dare she say it- old _friend_ in there.

She had to admit, the Captain was handsome. But it was more of a teen-idolising-pop-star sort of fancy she had for him than real love, like the kind with L-

Oh, she wasn't going to think about people she couldn't have, not now.

The doors creaked open, and Jack grinned at her, looking up. The chains binding his arms parallel clinked gently as he did so.

"So then, what've you got in store for me today? I was thinking, maybe..." he asked lightly, continuing with his playful banter and doing his best to avoid looking at Nikki. She felt a slight pang in her heart at the fact he was ignoring her purposely (funny, she hadn't thought she had had one of those anymore), but knew his actions were justified. She'd killed him before, even though she knew how much it hurt to come back for him. She'd done it anyway, and so he hated her. Obviously.

The Master grinned, nodding at the guards. They walked over, and, in accordance to the silent order, unlocked each side of the chains painfully slow.

Nikki opened her mouth to say something, then abruptly shut it. Talking wouldn't help, not right now. Asking questions... she had a feeling they would be answered.

The Master clapped his hands together, beaming.

Oh, Lord. That smile... she hadn't seen it, not since Gwen had...

"Bring him in!" the Master announced, and Nikki turned to the door, trepidation waterfalling down her spine as she turned, and in came Ianto Jones, tailed by two guards with expressionless faces, arms pinned behind his back as they tossed him to the floor.

Much to Nikki's surprise- and everyone else in the room- the Captain promptly burst into tears.

"Don't," he said, vehemently, shaking his head. "Just don't."

Ianto stared at Nikki, in horror, and she couldn't do anything but gape. The expression on his face spoke volumes. It screamed at her, save him, save him, save me, save us all.

She couldn't answer, and if she could, she wasn't sure she'd know what to say.

"Jack," Ianto whispered.

Jack lurched forwards at the Master, but the Time Lord lifted up an hand filled with his dreaded laser screwdriver and simply shot the man in the heart. A tear fell from Nikki's eye and she stared at the floor, ignoring Ianto's furious shouts and the guards behind him scuffling to keep him on the ground.

The Master leaned over, and cupped her chin, frowning in (disappointment, maybe?) at what he saw. "A tear, Asha?"

"No," Nikki mumbled, gaze falling back to the floor when he let go of her face. "Of course not."

It was a few more painful moments until Jack gasped back to life, and struggled to sit up. Nikki winced, knowing the laser would keep Jack incapacitated for at least an hour at times, paralysed most of that time period, and he was still struggling to get up.

The Master stared at Jack, smirk still on his face. "Kill him," he nodded at Ianto.

"NO!" Nikki screamed.

The Master turned, to look at her, amused. "Ah, so the little killer comes out of the closet, at last! I was waiting for this!"

Nikki stared, shocked.

"Nikki Smith," he crouched next to her. "You know, I'm not all that stupid. You might've used that identity filter, but I know it's you in there. Funny, huh? Been playing games with you ever since you got on the Valiant. I must say, you were an excellent actress, especially when that little plaything of Jack's, Gwen, died. Straight face, give the woman a Tony!"

"Shut up!" Nikki screamed, advancing on the Master, not even noticing when strong arms- the guards- pulled her away. "Shut up! I have had enough of your shit to last a lifetime!"

The Master leaned in as she continued struggling. "Good. Because it will," he beamed.

"Kill me!" Nikki shouted. "Kill me instead of him!"

"You're smart enough to know that I may just kill you and then kill him, too," the Master noted.

"You like games!" Nikki screamed. "So do this! Tell Jack to choose! Either me, or Ianto dies tonight. We all know who he'll choose."

The Master looked between Jack and Nikki, a smirk playing across his lips. "Very well."

"Jack? Jack, come on, just tell him my name."

The immortal stared at her, tears flooding his eyes.

"Jack? Jack, say my name," Nikki begged. "Say it. Please? Say it? Jack, say my name. Jack, please! Say my name! Say it!"

Jack stared at the floor, quivering.

And he shook his head.

The Master grinned. "Very well, then. Any last words, Ianto Jones?"

Nikki was screaming at Jack now, begging with him, shouting at him, calling him horrible names.

"Jack," Ianto said, looking up. "I love you."

And then the Master leaned over.

And Ianto Jones died.

"No!" Nikki screamed, lurching towards Ianto. "Ianto! No!"

With a strength she didn't know she possessed, she leaned over and punched one of the guards holding her in the face. She grabbed the gun from its holster, and pointed it at the Master's head.

He laughed. "Nikki, you gonna kill me? Come on, then, do it. Kill me! I dare you," he hissed. "Go on, pull the trigger! I deserve it!" he opened up his arms, as if to provide better range.

The gun, still in her hand, fell to her side as she collapsed to the floor, shaking.

"There you go, Nikki Smith," the Master gloated. "Still a coward."

Nikki looked at Ianto's body blankly. She looked at Jack, sobbing over his figure. Then she looked up at the Master, grinning away at her.

"Fuck you," she said, and then lifted up the gun and shot herself in the head.

_END FB_

* * *

Luke watched Nikki in silence, a tear running its way down his cheek. "I'm sorry," he blurted. "I shouldn't have asked, it-"

"It's okay," Nikki said absently, tucking hair behind her ear. "You were right, I needed to tell somebody."

"How come it's only affecting you now?" Luke wondered, from where he was sitting on the ground next to her chair. Nikki sighed. "I mean, you didn't exactly seem as distressed as you were back when we were... well, y'know, after the incident. So why now, why is it coming back after all these years?"

"I buried the memory," Nikki explained. "I can do that, I can make myself forget things, timelines, like that. It's sort of a gift, like how I was able to remember it even after I died. I can remember paradoxes, thanks to the thing that happened a while ago, y'know, the TARDIS and all, and I can also forget them. But I've been trying so hard to remember all the disappearances lately, and-"

"And in doing so, you remember all paradoxes," Luke realised. Nikki nodded, suddenly very tired. Very, very tired.

"Yeah." Luke stared at nothing for a moment, then Nikki spoke up. "It's okay. I mean, if you hate me now."

Luke stared at her, aghast. "Nikki! How old were you in the year?"

Nikki frowned. "About... seventeen. I lose track," she sniffled.

He put covered her hand with his. "Nobody's going to blame you for that, Nikki."

She kicked away from him, feet smacking against the floor and the sound reverb-ing through the room. He frowned, stupid spinny chairs with wheels. He watched as she stood, seemingly furious. With herself, he realised, not with him.

"How can you say that?!" she demanded. "I killed people for him, Luke! I watched them die! They _begged_ me not to kill them and I _killed_ them, I was scared for _me_! Me! Even if the world's forgotten it, I'm a _murderer_!" she sank to the floor in distress.

"We died, didn't we?" Luke asked, quietly, ignoring the horror in her eyes. "That's why you flung yourself at us. That's why you stare at Maria and Clyde and everyone else, even me, like it's a miracle we're alive."

Nikki shook her head. "No. You didn't just die. You were murdered."

"Who...?"

"He asked, I answered," Nikki said bitterly. "I... Luke, I've done terrible things. It's okay for you to hate me. I know you want to see the good in everyone, but... I'm just so tired of it all. Bet you wish you hadn't asked. Now then, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to bed."

Luke watched her leave the room, starstruck. He didn't realise nearly how much Nikki was keeping bottled up, how could she even _stand_ to be around them?

There had to be something he could do about this. He could fix her.

Or maybe not. Maybe they were all just screwed. Maybe this was just the beginning of the end of the world. Maybe they were all hopeless.

Damn.

* * *

_**If you don't watch Torchwood, short explanation: Ianto is Jack's boyfriend. Gwen worked for TW as well.**_

_**Anyway... this is one of my favourite chapters. And not just because it was terribly sad. Well, part of that. I like it 'cos Jack's in it, and who doesn't like Jack, right? Well, even when he's sort of broken and all that nice stuff, but he's still awesome.**_

_**This isn't the last we'll be seeing of the Year... especially since it plays a particularly large part in the second book.**_

_**R&R!**_


	16. Day Five- Morning

"All right, now, we're headed off to the Cottswald," Luke announced, as he turned the car down yet another winding road.

"Seriously?!" Nikki groaned from the backseat where she was sitting, arms folded in front of her, chin resting on her hands as she leaned on the dashboard. "Too many bumpy hills around here. No wonder I'm getting carsick!"

"Nobody asked for your opinion!" Sky sang-song from the front.

Nikki scoffed, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a kendama. Clyde looked at the thing in dismay.

"There is no way you could have fit that into your pants pocket," Clyde mumbled.

Nikki shrugged, sitting forward in her seat and turning her body halfway so she was facing Clyde, who was in the final row of car seats. "People can fit some pretty big things into their pants, you know." she waggled her eyebrows suggestively. "Like John Barrowman, for example."

Clyde groaned, squeezing his eyes shut. "Thank you for the visual."

"Pleasure," Nikki smirked, turning and leaning back into her seat, the occasional 'click-click' of the kendama sounding in their ears.

Mark, who was sitting next to Nikki, slowly leaned away from her.

They drove in pleasant silence for a few more minutes, save for the clinking of the kendama. Then Nikki spoke up. "Does anyone want a cuppa?"

"Are you capable of shutting up for a few minutes?" Emily snapped. "I'm trying to- wait. Did you say a cuppa? As in, a cup of tea?"

"Why, you want coffee instead?" Nikki screwed up her face, letting out a loud bark of laughter. "I've only got instant, and that's rubbish!"

"No, I just-" Emily watched, half amused, half confused, as Nikki reached into her pocket and pulled out four cups, and a box of tea bags.

"Hold these," Nikki told her, as she grunted and reached her hand into her pocket once more, extracting a small hot-water holder, pouring some into a cup. "Who wants tea?"

"I'll have a cup," Emily said.

"Same here," Clyde added.

"Might as well," Maria shrugged.

"Perfect!" Nikki beamed, pouring four cups. She gingerly handed them to each person in the car, then threw the teabags at them.

"You are full of surprises, you know that?" Emily mumbled, as she took a sip. Nikki beamed.

"Thanks."

"No, not you, I was talking to your pocket," Emily said.

Nikki rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Deny it all you like." she sipped from her cup, making a face as the burning liquid scorched her tongue. "Ow, that's hot."

"How exactly did you get that in your pocket, Nikki?" Mark asked, frowning.

Nikki shrugged. "Well, I took the cups, and then I put them in my pocket."

"I'm being serious," Mark said.

"And I'm not," Nikki said simply.

Mark groaned, knowing he was not going to get an answer. He leaned his arms on the windowsill, looking out at the blurring stalks of grass outside. The speed they were driving at made him feel dizzy, and with a churning stomach, he turned back to face the front, closing his eyes and letting out a loud moan.

"Bleating like a goat never helped anyone with carsickness," Sky's voice came from the front of the car. Mark scoffed.

"Easy for you ta say, Sparky. If you get sick, you can just stop the car with your magic electric powers, ooo!" he waved his hands in the air to emphasize the 'ooo'.

There was a loud BANG, and the window shattered behind Mark. He whirled around, staring at the backseat window. A bullet had smashed halfway through the bulletproof glass, right in between where his arms had been put up.

"You're kidding me!" Luke yelled.

"Floor it!" Nikki demanded, and the car sped off, full speed at 450mph.

"Bloody hell, are all of UNIT's cars this fast?" Sky yelped, as the car sped off. Emily shrugged, as if this was a normal day for her.

"Pretty much," she said. All that was missing was the casual sip from a cup of tea, and Emily'd look exactly like she was sitting at her grandma's house for a cuppa, rather than in a UNIT van in the middle of a car chase.

"It's a straight road," Rani pointed out.

"I noticed!" Luke gritted his teeth, "but where else do I go?"

"Turn," Clyde suggested, still half-turned around to see the car behind them- a nice red Ferrari. And it was gaining on them.

"What did they do, strap rockets to that thing?" Nikki groaned.

"Will you shut up a minute?" Luke's hands were clenched on the steering wheel as he turned right into a field, the car thudding heavily on the dirt path. "This was a mad idea!" he realised.

"And brilliant, too!" Nikki beamed, rolling up the window and taking a few shots at the car tailing them with her Beretta. A few clicks, and she groaned. "I need a machine gun. Clyde, will you reload this?" she thrust the gun into his hands.

"What are you gonna do?" Clyde asked.

"What?" Nikki couldn't hear him over the wind blowing in her face.

"What are you gonna do?" Clyde shouted.

"Less talking, more reloading!" she shouted back at him, grabbing the teacups from Emily, Clyde, and Maria, and throwing them out the window onto the road. She grabbed the glass hot-water holder, and threw it onto the road as well, watching it smash with a satisfied grin.

"Oh, 'cause that really helped!" Clyde groaned, handing her the gun. She took a few more shots, abruptly ducking into the car at one point. Straining, she took one final shot, then dove back into the car.

Mark watched the car behind them hit the broken glass, and the tires let out a loud squeal as the car spun out, coming to a screeching halt by the end of the road on the grass.

The doors swung open, and everyone piled out to see exactly who'd been chasing them.


	17. Day Five- Afternoon

"Hi there," Nikki singsonged as she approached the car, grabbing up a man with sunglasses on his face and dragging him away from the car, throwing him roughly onto the ground.

The shades he wore blocked out his eyes, although Nikki could make out the faintest trace of blue behind the dark lenses. There was a small scratch on the lenses he wore, and she watched him warily.

He wore a dark gray suit, with a clean white shirt underneath it, pearly white buttons glaring at her. His face was thin, and he had a chiseled chin and bushy black hair and eyebrows. His cheekbones were visible, and there was a thin stream of blood running down his face from his forehead- she guessed from the impact of crashing.

"Nice shades," Nikki mumbled, looking him up and down. "Nice to meet you. I'm Nikki, the Ender. The Destroyer, the Wrecker. The Never-Ending Nightmare. Also known as Nicole, sometimes. And Jake. That was a weird day, don't ask. And, occasionally- well, one time, 'how-the-hell-did-you-get-into-my-apartment-I'm-calling-the-cops'."

Sunglasses- whatever his name was- chuckled loudly, barking out laughter. Nikki watched him for a moment, before pulling a gun out.

"I'm serious," she stressed, anger flaring in her eyes. "_Who are you and who do you work for?_" she shouted. Luke moved to do something, but she looked absolutely terrifying in that one moment. For a moment, he forgot which side she was on. Actually, he almost forgot who she was, just for a split second.

"I don't exist," the man chuckled.

Nikki lifted up the gun and shot him in the leg. "Yeah, I wouldn't put my existence to the test if I were you," she said coolly, watching him writhe on the ground and scream in pain.

"Shooting him won't help us," Luke growled. Nikki let out a snarl, thrusting the gun into his hands and storming behind him in the field, just a few yards behind him.

"Sky, check his car, see if there's anything you can pick up. Rani, secure the van, check and make sure nobody's following us, Clyde, I need you, Emily, and Mark to cover the exits, check the area," Luke ordered.

Nikki rolled her eyes. "Thanks, I feel so needed."

Luke ignored her, leaning down next to Sunglasses. He looked an absolute mess, panting, a thin layer of sweat appearing on his brow.

"Who are you?" he asked quietly, but firmly.

"I don't exist," the man said simply, still panting.

Luke scowled at him, pressing closer. "Now, don't think I won't hesitate to use violence on you, because I will. 'S long as you are here, with us, you are _not_ safe. You hear me? I will get the information out of you, and seeing as you don't appear to have any other company, I will sit here as long as it takes for you to talk. Is that clear?"

Sunglasses just laughed. And laughed, and laughed.

They eventually managed to drag him back into the van, and continue driving for another extended three miles. Nobody'd appeared to be on their tails as of yet, but they weren't taking any chances.

Nikki did more than a pat-down check- she'd gone so far as to scan him for every weapon on him. There wasn't much, just an old Walther. Besides that, there were a couple of checks, old receipts, about 75 pounds, and, not surprisingly, no ID.

And about fifteen pairs of sunglasses.

"What the hell...?" Nikki mumbled, as she thoroughly examined each pair. Sky took them from her, studied them.

"They're all costuming glasses," she announced. "I'm guessing from Ebay, they're all designed to look like secret agent's sunglasses."

Sunglasses just laughed.

Nikki looked at him, and Luke could detect a strange sense of unnerve flowing from her. He shuddered, now that he thought about it, the laughter reminded him of something... but what?

He couldn't remember, he supposed.

"What's your name?" Nikki asked.

"I don't exist," Sunglasses chuckled.

"No, I'm not asking you 'cause I need to know, I just want to know. It's easier than shoving you 'round and calling you 'that guy' or 'the man with fifty billion sunglasses' or even 'Sunglasses'."

More laughter.

"I'll call you Bob if you keep it up," Nikki mumbled. "Sky, don't put those glasses on. They might be enhanced or something."

Sky scowled. "As if I would!" she handed Nikki the pair of sunglasses back, and she looked at them, squinting in the dimming light from outside.

"Hand me your penknife," she murmured to Clyde, still squinting at the glasses. Clyde carefully obliged, handing her the object. She reached out with the penknife, and scratched the surface.

Sunglasses let out a howling cry of agony.

Ignoring him, Nikki continued to scratch up the pair of sunglasses she was holding with two fast swipes, making an X on each lens, until someone grabbed her shoulder, effectively stilling her arm.

"What?" she asked who she assumed was Emily, annoyed.

"Look," Emily whispered.

She turned and looked at Sunglasses, who was currently rocking back and forth, his left hand clutching his right arm. His eyes were squeezed shut. And...

There was a very broad X marked across his arm.

"How did that get there?" Nikki demanded.

Sky swallowed loudly from the front. "It appeared there when you scratched up the lenses," she said, hoarsely.

* * *

**_I both love and hate Sunglasses._**

**_Confused? Don't worry, explanations to come in the next chappie. :)_**

**_R&R!_**


	18. Day Five- Evening

"Who are you?!" Nikki demanded, holding up the sunglasses. "Are you an alien?"

"I don't exist," Sunglasses said simply.

Nikki inhaled sharply. "You wanna bet? I could snap this pair of sunglasses in two in a heartbeat. Don't think I wouldn't," she threatened, staring down Sunglasses, a cold expression on her face.

Sunglasses smiled. "Would you, _Asha_?"

What happened next happened so quickly that if they blinked, they might've missed it. One minute, Nikki was clutching onto the sunglasses. The next, she was holding him up by the collar, ramming his face against the window.

"Who the hell are you?!" she screamed, face twisted into an ugly mask of pure rage. Sunglasses just laughed and laughed as she bashed his face against the bulletproof window. It took Sky, Clyde, and Rani combined to pull her off of him, and Emily and Mark to get the pair of sunglasses out of her grip. As soon as she let go, she turned absolutely numb, leaning her head against the windowsill and staring ahead blankly.

"What the fuck just happened?" Mark asked, voicing what every single one of them was thinking clearly.

Sunglasses just laughed. "Emily, how are you and Markus getting on? Job difficult at work?"

Emily paled and Mark's fists curled up so tight that his knuckles started to turn white.

"How about you, Sparky, still a bit hung-up over James?" Sunglasses asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Shut up," Sky said quietly.

"Bet he didn't even care when he walked off, bet he doesn't even remember you, you were just another-"

"_Shut up_," Sky shouted.

"And Luke," Sunglasses smirked, at the man sitting in the front seat, driving. "Always crying home to Mummy. But we all know you're just as easily replaced with a dirty-blonde girl who has more talent than you'll ever dream of."

"And that brings me to Clyde, Rani. Always so fearful of your futures. Where has your good friend Luke gotten you now, hmm? On the run? Away from your art and journalism? Has he ever once cared about your ambitions? Always teasing you for being together, always angry because you two are happy. He doesn't care about you! He'll just make you miserable."

Mark snapped the pair of sunglasses in half and the man gasped in shock, before continuing to laugh so hard he started coughing.

A few seconds later, a loud crack sounded through the car, and they knew Mark had just broken one of his ribs.

"What do you want?" Luke asked through gritted teeth. Sunglasses laughed.

"To help you, obviously. Your emotions make you weak," he said.

"Maybe so, but our emotions make us who we are," Sky snarled. "They make us more than what you are."

Sunglasses inhaled. "Tell me, Sky, let's say we take a person. But what makes him so unique, hmm? Maybe not his actions. Certainly not his emotions. No, what makes a person is the way he sees the world. That's what makes us, Sky. The way we see the world. If we see it through rose-tinted glasses, clear contact lenses, or even a pair of-"

"Sunglasses," Sky finished dryly. Sunglasses smirked.

"Exactly," he chuckled. "Exactly, very good. Now, then, I've seen you lot. You may have the power but you don't have the emotional strength to get through this. You need someone's help, someone who doesn't have anything left to lose. You've lost so much already."

"Fuck off," Mark said bluntly.

"Fine, here. I bet you can't get us to a safe area by dawn," Sunglasses smirked.

"Try me," Luke said.


	19. Day Six

The van silently pulled up into an old field. Luke carefully parked the car, wordlessly slipping out of his seat and out onto the field. Nikki kept an eye on Sunglasses, pressing a black Beretta to his back as they stalked into an old, wooden cabin. The walls were painted white, but the colour was peeling off of the edges, and the roof was worn and tattered.

Sunglasses grinned. "Did it, then. You actually got us here fast. Didn't think it of you."

Luke snorted and scanned the door with an alien device, the latch quietly clicking open.

"The only sonic door-opener in the world that actually works on wood." Mark stepped inside the cabin, rubbing his arms. "Gosh, it's cold."

"It's to be expected," Nikki said simply. Quietly.

Luke eyed her suspiciously. Since when was Nikki ever quiet?

"I'll go check the fridge, to see if there's anything. Emily, can you get my medical equipment from the van?" Mark asked, rummaging around on the shelves. Emily nodded and headed back to the car. She returned with a small medical kit.

"Who's that for?" Nikki broke the awkward silence.

"Mr. Sunglasses," Mark said, carrying three small cans to where they were sitting in the lounge and placing them on the coffee table.

"I have a name you know," Sunglasses said. They ignored him.

"This place is freaky," Nikki muttered. "Reminds me a bit of, uh... Little House on the Ranch?"

Sky rolled her eyes. "So you're back to normal, then."

"Come on, up you get," Mark said, but Sunglasses shifted away from him.

"I'm fine," he said.

"Stubborn, too, now, come on. We don't want you to die, besides, I need to check for a concussion. Nikki banged you up pretty bad in the car."

Sunglasses groaned and shifted towards Mark, who carefully checked the back of his scalp.

"You're good," Mark analyzed. "Can you pass me the scanner, Emily?"

Emily glared at him. "I'm not your medical assistant."

"Pass?"

"Fine."

"Thank you. Now, let's see... rib twelve is broken, your left wrist is a bit bruised and swollen, and you seem to have dislocated your other arm."

Nikki scoffed. "Sounds like my exam from after I fell off that bouncy gym thing at Ashley's cousin's birthday party."

Luke raised an eyebrow in inquiry. "Ashley?"

Nikki swallowed. Hard. "Madeline. Well, that was her alias name. Shoulda known better, I mean... she used to travel with the Doctor. Ashley McGann was her real name. She left, to go travel with him."

Luke nodded. "Ah. I see. Sorry."

Nikki scratched the back of her neck. "No, no, it's all good. She's fine. She's happy. She's okay."

"Yeah."

"Oww!"

They all turned, to see Sunglasses clutching his right arm and giving Mark an angry glare. "That hurt!"

"I bet it did," Mark sighed. "Come on, let me wrap up your wrist."

"Bandaging me up just to break me apart again?" Sunglasses sneered.

"If you're curious, then, yes," Mark mumbled. "Now, quit squirming around! You're just like Nikki."

"Oh, damn," Nikki groaned. "My backpack's broken."

Mark scoffed. "What do you want me to do about it, cry?"

"You've got a needle and thread," Nikki said, giving him the puppy-dog eyes.

"For stitches. Not for Hello Kitty bags," Mark rolled his eyes.

"Fine." Nikki threw the bag onto the floor. "I'll just open the cans with my bare hands."

Sky sighed, watching her attempt to dent the metal can. "I'll go get a kitchen knife. If we're lucky, this house might have a can opener."

"Where are we, anyway?" Emily asked, rubbing her arms. "And why does it feel like we're in Antarctica?"

Luke gestured around him. "This? Mum used to live 'round here. Just when she went on trips. She owns it, had more money than you might think. Eventually, she got sick, stopped coming 'round anymore, and it just went to waste. Thought it might be safe, y'know."

"Yeah," Emily sighed.

"Are you done fawning over me like an injured rabbit?" Sunglasses sent a glare sharp as daggers towards Mark, and he groaned and threw down his equipment.

"Fine, fine, if that's what you want," he said, stalking back over to the couch where Nikki was attempting to open a can of soup with her teeth. "Hey, you want to use the laser saw?"

Nikki groaned loudly as he handed her the piece of equipment, then whacked him on the head with it.

"Ow!"

"Yeah, you deserve that," she grumbled. "Thought I was gonna lose a tooth. C'mon, over here."

She cut open the can and sighed. "Well, that was a waste. It's totally empty." she tipped it upside down, to emphasize her point.

A piece of paper slowly drifted onto the floor. They all looked at it.

Nikki gingerly picked it up, as if it would shatter into a million pieces, then read it aloud.

_If you have discovered this note, I can only assume one thing. Sarah is dead. _

_Whatever has brought you here, I have known to come for a while. Sarah's trips here, unfortunately, were not business trips. This location is undetectable on the map. Luke, she let you know where she was going for a reason, in hopes you might find this note. _

_If you are here, I am guessing they are after The Key. I am sorry I cannot tell you more. All I know is that whatever this Key is, everyone will do anything to get rid of it. I mean everyone._

_One of you in the group has the Key. I don't know who it is. The person who has it, most likely, does not know they have it. I know whoever has it will surely betray the ones they love. I'm sorry. But in order to stop all of this, to save the world, you need to destroy the Key._

_Good luck._

_-The Doctor_

_P.S. Go to the basement._

Nikki swallowed. "Before you ask, it isn't me."

"Oh, come on, we all know we aren't gonna find out," Mark grumbled. "What a load of rubbish."

Sunglasses chuckled. "You may want to go to the basement, kids."

* * *

"This is so stupid," Mark groaned. "There's no basement anywhere."

He shone a flashlight through the dark house. The electricity had been down. Behind him was the soft whir of Nikki's sonic screwdriver. She hadn't necessarily explained it, but apparently the sound filled up the gaps in door locks, cleaning them out and finding the code, like sticking a paperclip in.

"What's that for?" Emily asked, from the other side of the room.

"I can't see crap," Nikki complained, "and this thing works fine as a light source."

"Can you turn off the volume, I can't think," Mark complained.

Nikki scoffed. "You can't just make a sonic screwdriver unsonic, that defeats the whole purpose!"

Her voice was muffled, she'd wandered into the closet.

Mark sighed. "Nikki, I doubt you're gonna find a basement in a closet."

"You can find lots of things in closets, like Narnia. Besides, I was only checking. You never know," she said, stepping back out and dusting herself off.

"Well, what'd you find?" Emily asked.

She wrinkled her nose. "Old coats and lots of mothballs."

"Eew," Emily made a face. "Okay."

There was a loud crash from the other side of the house, and Emily and Nikki jumped.

"Sorry!" Luke shouted. "I found a bookcase!"

"What'd you do to it?" Mark shouted back.

"Pulled down a lot of books! I thought there might be some sort of secret entrance, you know, when you pull down the books?"

Mark sighed. "Luke, watch out, you're turning into Nikki."


	20. Day Seven- Early Morning

_**Two more chapters, and we're at the end of the story.**_

_**And we've made it to Day Seven.**_

_**I'm sorry.**_

_**I'm so, so sorry.**_

* * *

They searched well into the next day, and their efforts proved fruitless. Everyone except Nikki and Sky had given up and gone to sleep.

"Never gonna find it, are we?" Nikki chuckled, searching under the couch. "We're getting desperate."

"That's the Doctor for you, always talking in riddles," Sky said.

Nikki watched her walk from across the room. She looked so... beautiful.

Realising she was staring, she turned red and hid her face behind a table, pretending to be busy.

"So, uh, what kind of alien are you, exactly?" Nikki asked.

Sky looked surprised. "Why?"

"Sorry if I'm prying," Nikki quickly backtracked, "I mean, I-"

Sky shook her head. "No. I mean, nobody ever asks. I'm Fleshkind."

Nikki smiled. "I'm Slitheen. And a little bit human. And a little bit Dalek. And Cyberman. And... look, it's complicated. Just go read the first book; 'Sarah Jane's Children'."

Sky frowned, feeling as if Nikki had just broken something. "Uh, okay."

Something from the other room beeped, and both women jumped, slightly.

Nikki chuckled, rolling her eyes. "I'll be right back, just an alert from my monitor. I'll be in the computer room."

Sky nodded, checking under the couch.

Behind her, something moved.

She jumped, turning around, to see none other than Sunglasses behind her.

He had a gun.

Her hand fell to her side, where she usually kept her gun, but it wasn't there. She stepped backwards, until she'd reached the wall with a soft thump.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

Sunglasses grinned. "I'm the Master."

He shot three bullets into her head, and he watched her fall to the floor legs, crumpling beneath her as she collapsed, slightly amused. He beamed as the computer room behind him exploded- alert, indeed. They were all still children, so foolish.

Having eliminated Sky and Nikki, it was no wonder that, when he turned around, he should see Luke and the others holding up guns directly at him.

He laughed. "Hey, kids."

"I'm going to kill you," Luke seethed. His face was contorted into a mask of rage as he screamed. "I'm going to fucking kill you!"

"Not if I kill you first," the Master replied.

And the house blew up.

* * *

_**That's the end of the story, folks. I'm sorry I lied to you- the last chapter was the penultimate chapter, and... **__**HA! I got you! **_

_**Yeah, that was a prank chapter you just read there. Couldn't help myself! No, Sunglasses is NOT the Master. Sky and Nikki didn't just die. Nobody died, actually. The whole thing was a complete JOKE.**_

_**Sorry if I freaked you out- wait, no, I'm not sorry. Freaking you out was the whole point of writing the prank chapter. (I know, I'm so evil.)**_

_**Real chapter should be up soon, don't worry. XP**_


End file.
